Shaman
by Belletiger BT
Summary: AU. It all started when I was born. Ever since I was an infant, I had a great spiritual power. Because of that a hungry youkai became interested in me and spirited me away from my birth parents. Fortunately, I was saved by a gentle and old miko named Hakurei Hinoto.I am Hakurei Tsunayoshi- a shaman in training and in the search of my birth parents. This is my story.
1. Chapter 1

Shaman  
Chapter 1- Shaman in training.

( Tsuna's Pov)

It all started when I was born. Ever since I was an infant, I had a great spiritual power. Because of that a hunger youkai had interested on me and he spirited away me from my birth parents. Fortunate, I was saved by a gentle and old miko named Hakurei Hinoto. She took me to the shrine where she lived since she felt a strong spirit power within me. But because of I being kidnapped by a youkai, the evil energy of the youkai made me extremely weak. The old miko knew I didn't have much time and she right away took me to a small oasis in her shrine. In there had two spiritual koi fishes which were in true two living deamons. The bright orange one was the sky koi fish, while the red-brown one was the Earth Koi Fish. The Sky Fish gave me some of its flames of life, making not only my body healthy but also made my hair having a bright orange color.

Now you must be wondering, what a deamon? Well, a deamon is a person's soul resides outside their body in an animal-like form. It can be any kid of animal; from a normal animal to a legendary beast. Of course, the deamon's animal form depends on very much on the person's heart. But only very powerful spiritual energy people can summon their deamon. My deamon is a small kirin named Tenma. I am Hakurei Tsunayoshi- a shaman in training in the search of my birth parents. This is my story.

( End of pov)

Tsuna was standing in the front of the door that soon will be his classroom. He was nervous; after years of home schooled, he will finally go to a normal school with a lot of people.

"Nervous, Tsu-kun?"

Tsuna looked down and he saw his deamon beside him. He smiles to his deamon.

"A little." Admitted him. "But it will be a good training for me, Tenma. To be a high shaman, I have to deal with the living just like how I do with the death. Hinoto Baa-chan had to go through the same thing."

"But if anybody is mean to you, they will feel the kirin wrath! I bet those idiots can't see even a small hitotama much less a great deamon like me ." the deamon smirked

"That's not nice, Tenma." Muttered Tsuna

Tenma is Tsuna's deamon. She takes the form of a small pony kirin. She had bright orange scales, golden mane and tail and big bright orange eyes, and there's a horn on the top of her forehead. When Tsuna was 8 years old, he summoned his deamon by accident while he was training shamanic arts and naming her Tenma ( Heavenly steed) when he saw she was a kirin. Since then, Tenma became Tsuna best friend and companion. In the spirit anf shamanic arts. They, they heard the teacher calling for Tsuna.

"Well, it's now or never." Tsuna said as he opened for the door.

XXX  
"I have some news. We have a new transfer student…" The teacher said. "You may enter now."

Tsuna entered to the classroom. He looked a little nervous when he saw everybody

"That's Hakurei Tsunayoshi." Said the teacher. "He will be with us from now on."

"H-Hello. I am Hakurei Tsunayoshi. But you may call me Tsuna. It's nice to meet you.

Tsuna simply bowed his head slightly as he smiled to his new classmates. He eyes the reaction of the class; from what he could see, he knew no one could see Tenma who was beside him. That means everybody in there has no spiritual sight.

"Well, now that that's settled, I would like you to take a seat over there." The teacher replied, pointing to the seat near the where Yamamoto was sitting. Tsuna simply nodded in agreement as he went to his seat. She looked at his right and saw Yamamoto who was griming at him.

"I hope we can be good colleges." He said, griming at him. "I am Yamamoto Takeshi. Nice to meet you."

"The same here, Yamamoto-san. "Tsuna said, smiling to him. Maybe a school life will be not bad at all.

XXX

At the boys restroom, a student from the second year was doing their business in the toilet. When he finished his business, the toilet started to glow.

"**Red paper or blue paper?" **a dark mysterious voice asked.

"W-What?"

"Red paper or blue paper?" he asked once again

Then a painful and horrifying scream could be heard all through over the school building.

XXX

Tsuna and everybody in his class startled in the moment they heard the scream. Everybody looked worried as their teacher ordered to the students to stay in the room while he would go to investigate what that was all about. The students muttered each other and wondering what was happening in there.

Tsuna frowned as he watched the teacher leaving the room. He looked at Tenma and he asked her via telepathy to follow the teacher and find out what was happening. Tenma nodded to him as she flew off to follow the teacher.

Tenma could see a crowd being formed in the front of the boys restroom door. Then, she saw a young boy with dark hair had arrived in there. Tenma could feel he had a powerful aura around him.

"Ah Hibari-san, look."

The boy named hibari went to the restroom. Tenma go through the wall to see what was inside of the restroom. She hissed as she saw a body of a strangled boy lying down in the floor. The floor, the walls and even the toilet was covered in blood.

"This is not good..." Tenma hissed herself

Hibari narrowed turned to the teachers and ordered to the teachers to call the police, saying there's a murder in the Namimori school.

"You're wrong boy…"muttered Tenma since she knew that Hibari boy could not see or hear her. "It's something much bigger than an murder. It…."

"It's a youkai in the school." Tsuna whispere in his classroom.

"Did you say anything, Hakurei-san?" Yamamoto asked.

"Ah, nothing. Its just something stupid."He smiled , embarrassed.

Yamamoto looked confused as Tsuna looked outside of the windown. Since he could see everything his deamon , he saw what happened to that boy in the restroom throught Tenma's eyes. He knew what they might deal with.

"This is will be troublesome."

XXX

At the night, Tsuna was in the front of Namimori middle school building . The school gates had the police yellow tapes for the crime scene. Because of the dead of that boy, the school was cancel for the rest of the week and possibly next week for the murder investigation. Tsuna looked determined to find out what kind if youkai he was dealing. Then, he saw Tenma flying to his direction.

"I checked all the building, Tsuna-kun. Its completely empty." His deamon said to him " We're lucky that that prefect, Hibari Kyoya is not here either since he's with the police to investigate the death of that boy. "

"Yeah, we're lucky, Tenma."Tsuna said to his deamon "I've talked to some ghosts who live here and they said Hibari-san stays in school even after the school hours are over. That guy has a passion for this place. I am not surprise he's furious on what happened here."

Both, the human and the kirin looked at the school building. They could feel some ominous energy from the building. Tsuna was so deep, he didn't feel the presence of a person behind him until a hand touched his shoulder.

"HIIE!" Tsuna screamed he punched the owner of the hand.

"Ouch!"

Tsuna blinked as he saw who the person ways.

"Yamamoto-san?"

XXX

Tsuna gave an ice bag to Yamamoto as he placed it on his sore check. Both of them were in the infirmary of the school.

"I am so sorry, Yamamoto-san. But you startled me!"

"Sorry, Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you, Hakurei-san. I am actually surprise to see you here." Yamamoto smiled to him. "I meant to ask you this, are you by any chance relative of Hakurei Hinoto oba-sama?"

Tsuna blinked surprised. He didn't expected Yamamoto knowing his grandmother. Then again, his grandmother was always popular to young boys and girls when it comes with fortune telling.

"Yes, she is my grandmother."Answered Tsuna. Then he noticed Yamamoto behavior changed. His intuition was telling he knew something about the incident. "You know something, don't you?"

Yamamoto nodded as the expression of his face changed. Yamamoto explained yesterday, when he was at the boy's toilet, he heard a weird voice asking him if he wanted red paper or blue paper. Tsuna and Tenma's eyes widen in horror when they heard this.

"But on that day the baseball practice took too long and I was very late for my father's happy hour at his bar, so I answered no paper. " Tsuna and Tenma looked disgusted. Yamamoto saw Tsuna's disgusted face. "Hah ahaha, don't worry, I washed myself at home, I need to be clean to help my old man. Anyway, I thought I was hearing things since I was exhausted from the practice but after what happened to Tsubasa senpai…."

Tsuna nodded as he looked he looked at Tenma. The kirin creature knew what to do as she flew off. The brunet placed his hand on Yamamoto.

"Yamamoto. Don't blame yourself." Tsuna said softly to him. " What happened to senpai was not your falt. You didn't know what that voice was. But thanks to you, I know what we're dealing with." Then, Tsuna's face because serious . "We're dealing an Akagami-Aogami."

Yamamoto looked confused.

"A what?"

"Akagami-Aogami. It's a type of youkai that haunts the restrooms asking to his victims if they want red paper or blue paper."Tsuna explained to Yamamoto " Both options are terrible ways of death, with "red" meaning the victim getting his blood drained out and "blue" meaning suffocation until the victim becomes blue due to asphyxiation. Answering with another color does not stop him either, the other colors drag the victims to the underworld. The only way to get out of this situation is answering no paper. You were lucky for answering no paper to Akagami-Aogami, Yamamoto-san, because it's the only way to get out from Akagami-Aogami's hands, without being killed or being taken to the underworld."

Needless to say Yamamoto became paled after hearing this. He was saved from having a terrible death without knowing this. He was lucky, but he can't say the same for the sempai. Tsuna smiled to him.

"Don't worry, Yamamoto-san. I can stop him."

XXX

Tsuna and Yamamoto were both on the boys restroom. Yamamoto was very nervous. Especially when the bathroom was still covered in blood and the smell was making the young baseball feeling ill.

"Hakurei-san, Are you sure it's a good idea?"

"I have to,Yamamoto-san. Or else this youkai will make more victims"

Then, Tsuna frowned as he felt the evil presence again. A disgusting black hand came out of the toilet as it started Yamamoto greatly. They could hear an evil chuckling in the hair.

"**Red paper or blue paper?"**

Tsuna smirked

"Yellow." He said as Yamamoto's eyes widen in shock.

The hand dive back to the toilet. Suddenly a black whole appeared in the wall of the restroom, to suck the boys to the underworld.

"Why did you do that?" Yamamoto shouted as he was holding in a sink to not being taken by the black hole.

"Trust me in this Yamamoto san." Tsuna said as he took from his pocket a brush.

Tsuna quickly drew seals in the air. The kanji seals glowed as they formed a barrier around him. Yamamoto was amazed. He had no idea Tsuna could happen. Then, Yamamoto blinked in surprised as he saw Tsuna's hair glowing bright as a flame formed in his forehead.

" Do you really think a weak youkai as yourself can take me to the underworld?" Tsuna asked. His voice was even different, It was more mature. "I may a shaman in training but I am much more powerful than you!"

Then, Tenma showed up beside of Tsuna. She gave him a bottle filled with water.

"Here is the bottle, Tsu-kun." Tenma said, handing to Tsuna the bottle.

"Thanks Tenma."

Tsuna took the the bottle in his hand as he drew in a small paper the symbol of a torii on it. He placed the paper on the bottle as he held it up.

" Evil darkness , Be gone! Evil darkness , be gone! Evil darkness , be gone!"

Tsuna And Tenma chanted the same thing over and over again until until the bottle sucked the youkai to inside of it. Akagami-Aogami tried to escape but he was completely sucked to inside of the bottle. The paper sealed the bottle, trapping the youkai for good.

"It's now over." Tsuna said he looked at the sealed bottle on his hand.

XXX

One weak had passed and the school was open again. Thought some students didn't come back because of the death of the second year student. Tsuna and Tenma were going towards to the school building as they heard a familiar voice behind them. They spun around to see the owner of the voice."

"Yo, Hakurei-san."

It was Yamamoto.

"Ah, Hello, Yamamoto-san. How are you doing?"

"Hahahah, I am doing fine. Thanks to you and your pony friend Senpai will rest in peace and that monster will not make any more victims." Yamamoto said.

"Hey, I am not a pony! I am a kirin!"

Then, Tsuna and Tenma were in silent as they noticed something very important. Yamamoto could see Tenma.

"YOU CAN SEE HER/ME?" both of them shouted .

"Hahah, I could see your friend since the first minute you came in the classroom. I never said anything because you never said anything and your friend never talked to me either" Yamamoto said , smiling as he scratched behind of his head.

Both of them looked dumbstruck. They could not believe the baseball player could see Tenma all along. Tsuna was very sure he saw no reaction In Yamamoto when he entered to their classroom.

"Ma ma, I hope we can be good friends. Hakurei.-san."

Tsuna blinked. For the first time he could meet someone of his age that could see his deamon. That means Yamamoto can see other spirits as well.

"Call me Tsuna, Yamamoto-san." Tsuna said as he took Yamamoto's hand.

"Alright, as long you call me Takeshi."

"Oh yeah!" Tenma shouted very joyful. As she placed her hooves on their heands. "It will be so cool to talk someone else beside of Tsu-kun."

Tsuna was happy. Very hapy for Yamamoto becoming his first friend. Something was telling to the young Shaman in training that was only the beginning as human and as a shaman in training.

To be contined.

Well, I hope you like the first chapter. Too me a while to finish this. I wanna know your thoughts about the story. ^^

Yeah, I got the deamon idea from the movie The golden Compass. I thought it would be cool using deamons in a Au shaman story. Suggestions are welcome.

I want to thanks to KuraiArcoiris for helping me in this story ^^

Next chapter: a new transferred student, missing children and a new and unexpected deamon.

Kirin- A mystic Chinese chimerical creature known throughout various East Asian cultures, and is said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a wise sage or an illustrious ruler. It is a good omen that brings serenity and prosperity.

Akagami-Aogami- A malicious spirit who haunts bathrooms and asks the cubicle occupants if they want red or blue paper.

hitotama - A fireball ghost that appears when someone dies.


	2. Chapter 2

Shaman  
Chapter 2- A new transferred student, missing children and a new and unexpected daemon

Xxx

(Tsuna's pov)

Hello. My name is Hakurei Tsunayoshi—a shaman in training. A couple of weeks ago I finally got out from my home schooling and got to go to Namimori middle school, that way I could learn how to be around with 'normal' people. But unfortunately my first day didn't go how I expected. An Akagami-Aogami; A malicious spirit who haunts bathrooms had killed a second year student. But thanks to Takeshi-kun's help, I was able to deal with the youkai and I sealed him for good.

I was surprised and yet happy when I learned that Takeshi-kun can see things that normal people can't see. Tenma is happy too since she will have another person beside of me and Hinoto oba-chan to talk to. Something is telling me Takeshi-kun will be not the only one with spiritual sight that I will hang out with.

(End of pov)

XXX

Tsuna and Takeshi were in Tsuna's room at Namimori's shrine. Takeshi was amazed with the number of spirits that lives in the shrine; from colorful hitodamas to animal spirits.

"Wow, I did not notice how much cheerful the shrine is than the last time I came here," Takeshi commented as he and Tsuna were doing their homework. Tenma was sleeping on Tsuna's bed.

"That's reminds me, Takeshi-kun. Since when did you start seeing spirits?" Tsuna asked out of curiosity.

"Hum…. I think since I was 9 years old, after my mother died from leukemia." Takeshi said.

Takeshi started to explain about how much he was in grief when his mother died and how much he missed her. But he got out from his grief when he saw a beautiful blue fireball around him and a woman that looked like his mother. At first he thought it was his mother, but the woman said that she was not; she was only using the image of his mother since she was born from her emotions. But the woman had no ill intentions, and she told Takeshi never to stop smiling, that way his mother could always live on in his smile.

"Since that day, I never stopped smiling. I do it for my mother's sake."

"Ah, I see." Tsuna smiled. "I think you saw a Mu-onna, and the blue flame might have been your mother's hitoma."

"What's a Mu-onna?" Takeshi asked, curious.

"Mu-onna is a faceless female spirit. She's a spirit created from a mother's tender feelings, protecting and confronting children. She always takes the shape of the deceased mother's child. They are not evil. Sometimes deceased mothers ask a Mu-onna or even create one with their feelings and emotions to give messages to their children. Your mother must have created this Mu-onna to comfort you and ask you never to stopping smiling."

Takeshi smiled after hearing this. He always remembered his mother being a very cheerful and beautiful woman. And he would never stop for his mother's sake.

Tsuna smiled. He remembered he saw a mu-onna once, when he was playing at the shrine's garden when he was little. The spirit was faceless when he met her, but he wasn't scared of her as she played with him like a mother would do with her child. Sadly, she could not take the shape of his birth mother like he had expected since he had no memories of his birth parents. The Mu-onna only took the shape of a young Hinoto since she was the only mother figure he had.

"Someday, I will find my birth parents," Tsuna thought to himself.

Xxx

In Nanimori, it was night time. In the middle of the dark street, there was a lone and walking figure of a monk, playing softly a bamboo flute. While playing a beautiful melody, the monk was being followed by 8 children, children that supposed to be sleeping in their warm beds.

XXX

Tsuna was lying inside of his bed with his left arm hanging out to the side with Tenma was sleeping beside him. He slightly snored and muttered to himself about his dream.

"Who-who are you?"

*Dream sequence *

Tsuna found himself in a dark place. In there he could find see several children lying down with a monk sitting on a rock, while playing a bamboo flute. The scene vanished like smoke being taken by the wind. Then Tsuna sees another figure. He could not see his face but he knew it was a young boy, about his age, having beautiful silver hair and a red dragon behind him.

*end of the dream sequence*

Just then, there was a knock on the door. The doorknob turned, and a huge and old white tiger came walking in to find the boy still asleep. He shook his head in shame as he walks over towards the boy's bed and started shaking him to wake the boy up.

"Oi Tsuna. Wake up! It's 7:45," the tiger said. "You're going to be late."

As Tsuna shook his head, he opened his eyes and saw his grandmother's daemon standing over him. He wondered what was going on and turned towards his clock. The alarm clock was supposed to have gone off an hour ago. That is until Tsuna realized what happened. He had slept through the morning alarm. He quickly jumped out of his bed and gasped out.

"OH CRAP! 7:45!" Tsuna shouted out.

This sudden outburst caused Tenma to jump away from the side of the bed.

"Hey Tsu-kun * Yawn*, what's the big deal?" Tenma moaned. She was still sleepy.

"OH MY—! I can't believe I slept through my alarm! Byakko, why didn't you come and wake me up earlier?" Tsuna exclaimed and jumped out of his bed. "Holy crap, I don't want being bitten to death by Hibari-san."

"Hinoto and I have tried to wake you early but you sleep like a rock. Better you two be ready in 2 minutes before going to school," the tiger said before leaving the room.

XXX

Tsuna ran down the steps and quickly into the kitchen. He passed by and saw his grandmother Hinoto sitting at the table drinking her green tea. Hinoto was an old lady around of her early 70's. She was dressed in traditional miko robes and had a long white hair and shining green eyes . Byakko, her daemon tiger, laid beside her. The boy pulled out a bento with his lunch and placed it in his backpack.

"I don't have time to eat breakfast! I'll just eat something on my way to class!" Tsuna said as he closed the cabinets.

"You're going to be late, Tsu-kun," Hinoto pointed out.

"I know, Baa-chan. I will see ya later!" Tsuna said, kissing his grandmother's check. "C'mon, Tenma! Let's get moving!"

"I'm right behind ya, Tsu-kun! See you guys later!" Tenma waved to Hinoto and Byakko.

With the duo dashing out of the kitchen, Hinoto waved out and continued to drink her green tea.

"Poor Tsu-kun. I hope he manages to get to school on time."

"Something I doubt, very much, Hinoto," the old tiger said. "The usagi will be just like that usagi from Alice in wonderland."

Hinoto could not help but chuckle.

"Don't be so mean to him, Byakko-kun."

XXX

Tsuna and Tenma were running on their way to the school as he noticed several police cars talking to desperate women. If he remembered correctly, a few days ago, children started going missing. He was concerned that might be a youkai's doing. He would check this later after school.

Unbeknownst to Tsuna, the police was talking to a woman around her early 30's with short brown hair and brown eyes. She looked very desperate to the police officer.

"Calm down, Sawada-san."

"How can I be calm down? My children are missing since yesterday!" shouted the woman in tears.

XXX

Tsuna was sitting on his seat, panting for air. He had to run faster than normal to be in time. Luckily he arrived at Namimori middle school just in time, but he still had to run away from Hibari because Tsuna was running too fast for the prefect's rules.

"Were you bitten to death by Hibari-sempai?" Takeshi asked, smiling.

"I was…. almost …bitten, Takeshi-kun." Tsuna said, gasping for air.

Takeshi looked around and noticed something. Tenma was not in the class.

"Hey, Tsuna, where's Tenma?"

Tsuna just pointed towards the window. Takeshi looked to the direction of the window and saw Tenma, just like Tsuna gasping for air, while lying down in the tree's branch near of their class window. Then, the teacher came into the classroom.

"Listen up class, we have a new transfer student." the sensei said walking in class with a silver haired boy with green eyes walking right behind. The sensei gestured to the boy. "This is Gokudera Hayato who was studying overseas in Italy."

Gokudera looked like a delinquent, since he didn't wear a tie and his uniform shirt was unbuttoned showing a red undershirt. He wore necklaces around his neck and lots of bracelets and rings.

Tsuna blinked. He looked very familiar. He was sure he had seen him somewhere. Then he remembers the image of a silver haired boy with a red dragon. Could it be him? But he didn't feel anything from him, not even the presence of a daemon. He noticed that the transfer student was glaring at him.

'Hiee but his glare sure does remind me a dragon!' Tsuna thought, scared out of his mind.

XXX

On the roof, Tsuna and Yamamoto were eating their lunch together. They were discussing about the dreams that Tsuna had seen during the night.

"So you dreamed about a silver haired guy with a red dragon?" Takeshi asked, curious.

"Yeah, and then, I dream about sleeping children with a guy playing a bamboo flute to them. But I feel something wrong with the part of the children and the flutist," Tsuna commented as he ate a piece of his riceball before continuing. "I think it has to do with the missing children that have happening lately."

Takeshi frowned when he heard this. What kind of youkai wants to kidnap children? Tenma looked at Takeshi and started to explain to him there are several types of youkais that want to kidnap human for several reasons, like mating, killing, and even eating them. Rarely would youkais kidnap a human for the human's wellbeing.

"I am worried about the children. I feel the children are still alive, but yet I do not feel their presence." Tsuna frowned. His instincts were saying the children were alive but yet he still can't feel their presence, like if they were trapped in some kind of barrier.

"So, when do we act?" Takeshi asked, smiling.

XXX

At night, Gokudera was sitting on a branch at the part, smoking. He still wondered why he was in the Japan in the first place. Oh yeah, it's because of that woman, the one with a bright orange pacifier. He still remembered her smiling face and telling him to go to the Japan and find a kirin. Only the kirin would lead him to find a place where he would finally feel like he belonged.

"Agh! How the heck I will find a creature that does not even exist outside of book stories?" Gokudera shouted in frustration. "I should never have listened to that woman!"

Then, he heard voices. He turned around and he saw Takeshi and Tsuna in the park. He wondered why they were there so late in the night? Gokudera blinked confused when he saw something shiny walking with them. Then, his eyes widen in shock when saw the shiny thing was a kirin.

"It can't be…,"Gokudera muttered.

Meanwhile Tsuna, Tenma and Takeshi were in the park, looking for clues of the children's whereabouts. Tsuna could feel a small presence of the children, but he was still not where exactly they are.

"Hum… that's very odd," muttered Tsuna.

"What's up, Tsuna?" Takeshi asked.

"I feel the presence of the missing children, but it's very faint," Tsuna explained. "I think there's some kind of barrier around here."

"So, that means we're dealing with a youkai with a higher level than that Akagami-Aogami," commented Tenma, frowning. "Only high level youkai can make barriers."

"That will be troublesome," commented Takeshi. He might not have spiritual energy like Tsuna has, but he could feel there's something odd in that place. Something which is making him to want to go away from that place.

Suddenly, Tenma yelped as something lifted her. Takeshi and Tsuna turned around, and they saw Gokudera holding Tenma up. They were shocked, especially Tsuna since he didn't expect the transfer student to be able to see Tenma, much less touch her.

"I knew it! It's a real kirin!"Gokudera exclaimed, totally shocked and surprised with the small kirin in his hands.

Tenma didn't like the way Gokudera was looking at her. It was really scaring her. Especially when he's looking like he wants to eat her. She gave to the silver haired boy a headbutt. Gokudera hissed in pain as he placed his hand on his sore forehead as Tenma ran towards Tsuna.

"Hiiee! Tsu-kun!" she cried, hiding behind Tsuna.

Gokudera glared at Tsuna, as he grabbed the collar of his shirt.

"Hey, teme. Where did you find this kirin?"

"G-Gokudera-san, calm down, I dunno why you want a kirin, but Tenma is not even a real one. She's my daemon," Tsuna said, a little frightened.

"Hey hey, you shouldn't treat people like that." Takeshi said, trying to cool off the situation.

"You stay out of this!" Gokudera snapped.

Tsuna stepped back but he lost his balance. He grabbed Gokudera to avoid falling to the ground, but Gokudera also lost his balance and started to fall. Takeshi and Tenma tried to grab them, but they also fell.

Tsuna groaned as he felt Gokudera, Takeshi and Tenma landing on him. This was not one of his best nights.

"Would you get off me, please?" Tsuna groaned in pain.

"Sorry Tsu-kun," Tenma said she floated.

"Ma ma, my bad," Apologized Takeshi as he got up.

"What is this place?" Gokudera asked in his deep voice, a fine silver eyebrow raising in question as his eyes scanned the general area around them, once he had gotten to his feet. "Were we not in the park a second ago?"

Tsuna frowned, also pushing himself to his feet as he looked at their surroundings. They were in some kind of forest.

"Could it be…," He breathed out. Tsuna had this odd sense that he knew this place from somewhere. Then he looked at the trees around them, and he could see ropes with some paper seals.

"Paper seals?" Tsuna wondered. He knew he was sensing some kind of barrier, but he never imagined they would cross over the barrier in Namimori's park.

Tenma tried to cross the barrier of seals but she only could feel a small charge of electricity on her hooves, making her stepping back.

"Yep, that's a barrier for sure," Tenma commented.

Gokudera was confused; one minute, he was in Namimori Park, and now he was in a very odd forest. He wanted explanations, and he wanted them now. Before he could protest, Takeshi silenced them.

"Shh… did you hear that?" Takeshi asked, making a silent sign.

"Hear what?" Gokudera frowned.

"I am hearing something too," Tenma said.

Everyone was quiet, focusing on nothing but the odd sound they were hearing. It was a sound of a flute. They followed where the sound was coming from. When they arrived, they saw several children lying down in the ground, sleeping. In the center of the field, a strange figure wearing in monk robes was playing a bamboo flute. Tsuna and the others hid their presence behind the trees.

"What's happening there?" wondered Takeshi, not liking what he was seeing.

Tsuna's eyes widen in shock when he noticed the life energy being taken away from the children and going to the monk. Tsuna growled.

"So, it's a Aobozu the responsible for the children going missing."

"Aobozu?" asked Gokudera confused.

"It's an evil youkai monk spirit who kidnaps children," Tenma growled. "He sucks the life energy of 100 children, so he can live more 100 years longer before repeating the same ritual."

"But I do not understand. Aobozu do not have the ability of making children go to sleep." Tsuna frowned, confused. "He can hypnotize children with his flute, but he can never make them to sleep. He usually cages children to absorb their life force."

Then, the youkai know was Aobozu stopped playing his flue. He smirked. Soon he will absorb all the life energy of the children and live 100 years longer. And it was much easier taking their life force when they were sleeping.

"Such delicious life force," the Aobozu said, darkly. "I would never be able to absorb the life force of those children so easily without your help."

Then, the humans and the deamon saw there a strange giant crystal sphere floating beside of the youkai. There was someone inside of the sphere. It was a woman, around of her middle 20's years, with emerald eyes and beautiful long silver hair. The color of her hair reminded Tsuna of the moonlight that baths the night. Gokudera's eyes widen in shock; he recognized who was inside of the crystal sphere.

"M-Mom?" he whispered in shock.

Tsuna, Tenma, and Takeshi looked at Gokudera in shock. The woman inside of the sphere was his mother?

"You will not get away from this, you bastard!" Gokudera's mother shouted at Aobozu, angrily. "Let those children go!"

"Sweet heart, I can't do it, they are my food." Aobozu chuckled, darkly. "Thanks to your ability to put children to sleep and have sweet and pleased dreams about their mothers, I can absorb their life force much easier. Don't worry, beauty, they will die in peace since they are all dreaming about their beloved mothers."

Tsuna and Tenma frowned after what Aobozu said. They suspected the woman trapped inside of the crystal sphere was much more than Gokudera's mother. Gokudera growled. He didn't know what was happening but he knew that man, Aobozu or whoever he was, was making his mother suffer. Gokudera took out from his pocket some of his dynamites. Tsuna, Takeshi, and Tenma saw Gokudera with the dynamites.

"Gokudera-san, what are you…"

Before Tsuna could complete his question, Gokudera lights the dynamites with his cigarette before throwing them at Aobozu.

*KABOOM*

Needless to say the boys and the kirin freaked out when Gokudera's dynamites exploded.

"What the…," Aobozu growled as he saw the group.

Gokudera got out from his hiding place and glared furiously at Aobozu.

"Let my mother go, you bastard!" Gokudera shouted angrily at Aobozu.

"H-Hayato?" Gokudera's mother whispered in shock. "Hayato get out here now! He's not someone you should fight with!" she shouted in panic.

"Oh, I get it, so it's from this boy's mother you were born from," Aobozu chuckled. "Now watch how I kill this boy die by my power."

Aobozu fired a powerful blast from his flute in Gokudera's direction. Gokudera's mother shouted in panic as the blast came closer to her son. Gokudera closed his eyes and made his arms protecting his face, expecting to be hit by the blast. Before the blast could hit him, a fire wall made of orange flames protected him.

"What?" Aobozu shouted angrily.

When the flames were gone, they saw Tsuna standing before Gokudera. Tsuna had 4 golden rings with magatama around his wrists and ankles.

"Are you ok, Gokudera-san?"

Gokudera's eyes widen in shock. He saw Tsuna was now a completely different person. His eyes were orange ember and his hair was glowing. Not only that, but on his forehead there was also an orange flame, which Gokudera recognized very well. The Sky flame.

"Takeshi-kun, you'll help Gokudera-san to protect the woman and the children. Tenma and I will deal with Aobozu."

Takeshi nodded as the 4 rings around of Tsuna's wrists and ankles start to spin fast, so fast that were creating new sky flames. Tsuna flew fast towards Aobozu, taking him high to the sky and making sure he will not hurt the woman and the children. Gokudera looked at Tsuna. For some reason, he could see a kirin in the boy.

In the sky, Tsuna were battling with Aobozu in a very fast speed. The rings in his wrists and ankles were spinning so fast that were creating fire on them.

"_Are you ok, Tenma?"_ Tsuna asked, through the telepathy. "_It's the first time we use the weapon mode in a fight."_

The rings were actually Tenma. That's one of the main abilities of a daemon. They can become a type of spiritual weapon, depending of the master's personality. In Tsuna's case, Tenma can become powerful rings that can products sky flames.

"_I know. But I am ok for now,"_ Tenma replied. _"Let's finish this bastard and returning those kids home!."_

"Right!" shouted Tsuna as he attacked Aobozu with his sky flames.

On the ground, Takeshi was checking the children. From what he could see, they were still alive but weak due to Aobozu absorbing their life force. Then, he saw Gokudera using a big rock, trying to break the woman's prison. But even with full force, he couldn't even make a small scratch on the crystal sphere. Then, Takeshi remembered the seal Tsuna had used on that youkai who haunted the school.

"Maybe…" Takeshi quickly took a paper and a red pen and star to draw a torii seal.

Meanwhile this, Gokudera was still trying to break the sphere but it was useless. The sphere didn't have any scratch.

"Hayato, this is useless." His mother said to him. "Only Aobozu can undo this prison."

"I lost you once Mom. I will not lose you again!" Gokudera shouted, still beating the sphere.

"Hayato, I…"

But she was interrupted by Takeshi.

"May I try?" Takeshi asked, holding up the torii seal he just made. Takeshi smiled as he placed the seal in the sphere. Then, he formed the same hand sign that Tsuna made in that day, when he sealed the Akagami-Aogami.

"Evil darkness, be gone."

Suddenly, several cracks were forming around the sphere. Then, the crystal sphere sharded in several pieces; Gokudera's mother was free from her prison. Before Gokudera's mother could even thank the boy for freeing her, Gokudera hugged her, tightly, with tears rolling down on his face.

"Mom, I am so sorry," Gokudera said, crying. "I had no idea who you were before …. before that awful accident. I never released anything!"

Gokudera was crying on her shoulder. He could feel everything. She had the same aura, the same smell and the same spirit. She was his mother. Gokudera's mother hugged him back but guilty was shown on her face. She bit her lips before speaking the true.

"Hayato, I am not actually your mother," she said, painfully.

Gokudera pushed gently her back as he looked at the woman confusing. What she was saying?

"Wait. What are you talking about? You're Lavina, aren't you?" Gokudera asked, in denial. "After hearing the maids talking about you, that bastard Shamal had confirmed the truth about you to me! You're my mother!"

"Hayato, I actually born from her feelings and love for you." Gokudera's mother said, making Gokudera even more confused.

Then, Takeshi remembered Tsuna talking about the Mu-onna and how they were born.

_"Mu-onna is a faceless female spirit. She's a spirit created from a mother's tender feelings, protecting and confronting children. She always takes the shape of the deceased mother's child. They are not evil. Sometimes deceased mothers ask a Mu-onna or even create one with their feelings and emotions to give messages to their children. Your mother must have created this Mu-onna to comfort you and ask you never to stopping smiling."_

Then Takeshi had to interfere. He was sure the woman before them was a Mu-onna.

"Excuse me, miss. Are you by any chance a Mu-onna?" he asked.

Gokudera's mother nodded. Gokudera was completely confused about her mother being a Mu-onna. What was a Mu-onna anyway? Takeshi explained to him about what a Mu-onna was. Gokudera could not believe what he was hearing.

"Yes, I am a Mu-onna. I was born from Lavina's feelings and love for you, Hayato. I would have come to you sooner, but because of the crash of the accident, your mother's memories about your whereabouts were fuzzy. Took me a while to find you. But when I finally did, you already hated your mother after learning the truth about her. A mu-onna can't reach to the child when this child is angered or hates his or her mother." The Mu-onna explained her situation to them. "So the best I could do is to wait until you feel less anger and hate towards your mother, while I was watching you in a far distance."

Gokudera was quiet. He could not believe what she was saying. Then, he now understood why he felt a weird presence around him when he couldn't see anything. He always thought that the presence was some kind of UMA stalking him.

"Then that woman named Aria came to you a couple of weeks ago. She told you to come to Japan and find a kirin because a kirin would lead you to the place where you would finally feel belonged. I thought it was a great opportunity for you to finally be able to see me, and I came here early. But when I came here, I was captured by that Aobozu and using my abilities to make the children to sleep while he steals their life force."

Takeshi now understood the case of the children's kidnapping that has been happening in Namimori for a few days. Gokudera was in silent. He couldn't believe at first but now he could finally understand everything about the weird presence around him, and the lullaby that someone sang for him every night. Then, the Mu-onna touch his hands.

"Your hands are soft and good for playing the piano."

Gokudera's eyes widen in shock. It was the same thing his mother told him once, encouraging him to play the piano.

"Hayato, you may have stopped playing the piano after you learned the truth, but I know in the depth of your heart, you still want to play the piano. Your mother will always live in you, and in the sound of the piano. Never forget the melody of the piano."

Gokudera smiled. He had forgotten a long time ago, but now he remembered. The melody of the piano. It always made her to smile. He felt like a fool for forgetting something so important to him. Tears rolled down on his face and fall in his chest. Suddenly a red aura covered Gokudera, startling Takeshi and Mu-oona.

Tsuna and Aobozu also stopped to fight when they saw the glow of Gokudera's red aura. Tsuna looked totally surprised by this event. He felt this sensation before and he knew what was happening.

"Could be …" Tsuna started

_"…the delinquent is summoning his daemon?"_ finished Tenma for Tsuna

Then, something was being formed through the red scarlet flames. Gokudera blinked confused but his instincts told him to hold the flame thing. When he did it, the flames vanished, and in his hands there was a very weird creature; it had a long snake like body, small talons, two small horns on the top of his head. It had shiny scarlet scales and pink mane covering the top of its body. On its nuzzle had two long whiskers. Takeshi blinked confused.

"Is that a dragon?"

When the small dragon opened its eyes, it showed they were green, just like Gokudera's. It gave a big smile before it quickly warped its body around of Gokudera's neck and started to rub its face in his.

"Finally, finally! You summoned me, Haya-chan!" the dragon shouted in pure happiness. From its voice, they knew it was a female.

"Argh, stop trying to suffocate me, you stupid lizard!" Gokudera shouted, as he tried to take the dragon off from his neck. Takeshi and Mu-onna sweat-dropped at the scene.

The dragon noted her warp was a bit tight for Gokudera's neck. She unwrapped herself from Gokudera's neck and floated in the front of him. She scratched behind of her head, with a very embarrassed expression on her face.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to harm you. I was just happy you finally were able to summon me. I am your daemon."

"Daemon?" Gokudera asked, confused. What was a daemon? He remembered the Tsuna boy mentioning the kirin was his daemon.

"Daemon is a person's soul that resides outside their body in an animal-like form. That means I am your soul that resides outside your body in a dragon-like form," she explained, smiling to Gokudera. "I meant to come out sooner but I couldn't because your sister's poison cooking not only messed with your body but it also messed up pretty bad your chakra system and spiritual sense." the dragon muttered darkly, as she remembered every poison food Gokudera was forced to eat by his sister. Since she was Gokudera's soul, she could feel all the poison while she was still inside of Gokudera's body.

Gokudera growled as he shivered when the little dragon mentioned his sister. He still could taste all the poisoned food he was forced to eat. It was a torture.

Aobozu growled angrily. He didn't expect the silver haired boy could summon his daemon. That means he will be trouble not to him but to the other youkai as well. He dives quickly, in hopes to kill the boy.

"Damn it!" Tsuna cursed as he dove after the youkai.

Gokudera growled as he saw Aobozu coming towards him at high speed. Mu-onna shouted Gokudera's first name. Gokudera's little dragon spun around and saw the youkai. She growled. Before the youkai could get any closer, she blows intense scarlet flames at him. Aobozu yelled in pain as he felt the scarlet flames burning him, turning a part of his body into stone. Tsuna took the opportunity to finish the youkai off for good.

"Finish Strike! Sky Kirin kick!" Tsuna shouted as his feet was covered by sky flames and diving at a incredible speed. The youkai turned to ashes with the impact of his kick.

Tsuna landed where the group is. The rings around of his wrists and ankles vanished as Tenma reappeared at Tsuna's side. Takeshi went to Tsuna, commenting he did an awesome rider kick. Tsuna wondered what he meant by having a rider kick.

Tenma looked at the dragon very curious. It was the first time she saw a very unique daemon like her. She admitted the red scales on the dragon's body were beautiful.

"Hello, little dragon. I am Tenma, the sky kirin and Tsu-kun's daemon. Nice to me you."

Gokudera's dragon flew over to Tenma. She smiled at the kirin.

"Hello! Nice to meet ya! I am Haya-chan's daemon! I am a Storm dragon! And my name is… my name is…" she blinked. She remembered she still was not named yet. She looked at Gokudera with watery eyes. "Haya-chan! You still have not named me yet!" She whined.

Gokudera sweatdropped. The dragon was really his soul? Tsuna chuckled as he explained sometimes daemons come out with a completely different personality of the owner. Gokudera sighted as he looked at the little dragon with folded arms. Since his soul was a dragon, so he will name it with a dragon name.

"Ryuki ( dragon spirit). Since you're a dragon, I will name you Ryuki."

Now the newly named dragon Ryuki was quiet. Then, she smiled and warped her snake-like body around Gokudera's neck, happily.

"I love the name, Haya-chan!" Ryuki shouted very happy as she rubbed her face into Gokudera's.

"Arght! You're suffocating me again!"

Everybody sweatdropped. From what they could see, Gokudera's daemon was very hyper and full of energy.

"Err… I think it's better we deal with the barrier," Tsuna commented to Takeshi as he nodded to him.

XXX

It was already late. The stars were all around the black skies and the moon shone brightly upon the small little town. Everything was quiet in the park but two women on the bench. A blond woman was trying to comfort the brunet one.

"Calm down, Nana-chan," the blond woman said. "I know the police will find your children."

"I already lost my baby son in the past, Kisa-chan." the brunet sobbed. "I don't want to lose my adopted children too!"

The woman, startled, let out a gasp of surprise before turning to look behind them as they saw an intense light before it vanished. They went to the direction of where the light was. They gasped in surprise when they saw all the missing children unconscious on the ground. The woman named Nana spotted two unconscious boys, one of them had a dirty blond hair while the other one had a red-brown hair. She rushed to them.

"Kouga! Fuuta!"She shouted, before she hugged them and crying. The blood woman quickly took out her cellphone to call the police, telling them they found all the missing children.

XXX

At Namimori's Shrine, Hinoto and Byakko welcomed the group back. The elder congratulated Tsuna not only for defeating a youkai in combat, but also rescuing the children inside of a barrier. Tsuna thanked his grandmother but he mentioned he wouldn't have been able to save the children in time if it wasn't for Gokudera when he appeared so suddenly and took them inside of Aobozu's barrier. Even Takeshi commented that the dragon was funny.

At the shirne's guarden, Gokudera ( with Ryuki warped around of his neck) was talking to Mu-oona. He was a bit upset because the lady who was born from his mother's feelings was leaving.

"Are you sure you have to go?" Gokudera asked, softly.

The Mu-onna smiled to him.

"Yes, my role with you is over for now." She said to him. "There's several children out there, in the same situation as you in the mafia that need me."

Gokudera was quieted. In the depth of his heart, he understood the role that the Mu-onna had but he still didn't want her go. She was all that left of his mother. Then, the Mu-onna kissed Gokudera's forehead.

"One day, I will be back for you, Hayato." The Mu-onna said, smiling to Gokudera, "I promise."

Then, the Mu-onna glowed as she floated to the direction of the sky. She looked at one last time, before returning to her real form of a faceless spirit woman. Gokudera smiled, finally feeling his heart much lighter and happier.

"Haya-chan. Mom was awesome, wasn't she?" Ryuki said to Gokudera.

"Yeah, she was." He whispered to her.

To be continue.

That was the second chapter. I hope you really enjoyed it. It was not easy, especially fitting the youkai for this story. Please, do not forget to leave your review. They are important and make me work faster in the next chapters.

I wanna thanks to KuraiArcoiris for helping me in this chapter.

Next chapter: Haunted stadium, Shiisa and a captain's feelings

Cyclopedia

Mu-onna: The nothing woman. She is a vengeful spirit of a mother who lost her child to famine or war. She protects children in danger, but may also try to merge or absorb them. They can look into the child's soul to find information while merging with them. To gather the information, or to merge with them, the Mu-onna must cast a spell to put the child's soul to sleep.

Since the Mu-onna is made from a mother's tender feelings, she may be willing to allow herself to be destroyed for the sake of the child. In this story, I made the Mu-onna being kind and good spirits that protects the children from any type of danger.

Aobozu: The green monk who kidnaps children. Nothing much about this Youkai at wikipedia. I made him kidnapping children to absorb their life force.


	3. Chapter 3

Shaman  
chapter 3: Haunted stadium, Shiisa and a captain's feelings

(Tsuna's pov)

This is Hakurei Tsunayoshi again. Last time we had a new transferred student named Gokudera Hayato. At first he didn't like me very much, but he changed after the case of the missing children. To my biggest surprised, we found a Mu-onna, and that Mu-onna was born Gokudera-kun's mother's love. And my other surprise came when Gokudera-kun had summoned his daemon, a little dragon named Ryuki.

After we returned the children to their homes, Baa-chan offered Gokudera-kun to live in the shrine with us while she trains him better on how to control his spiritual power and his daemon. Ryuki and Tenma get along pretty well each other, and so do Gokudera-kun and I. Things are getting really interesting since my first day in the school.

(End of pov)

Several people were cleaning the hall of the Kendo stadium for the upcoming National Kendo Tournament. The workers were doing their very best to make everything ready in time.

"I heard this tournament is haunted," one of the janitors said, suddenly. That caught everyone's attention. Some looked a little scared, and others only looked annoyed.

"Shut up!" snapped the other janitor, slapping the head of the first one. "We have a lot of work to do here. So stop this no sense and work more!"

With this, the others continued with their jobs. A younger janitor came closer to the first janitor. He didn't like the fact the tournament was haunted.

"S-Sempai, why do you say this tournament is cursed?" the young one asked, frightened.

The other one grimaced as he looked at the young one with a wicked shine in his eyes.

"That's because 25 years ago, a very talented kendoka suffered a terrible accident, which made him lose his whole right arm," the janitor said to the young one. "After that, he killed himself right before the tournament was over. Since then, he haunts this tournament. Last year he made the other kendoka lose their right arms."

The young one was quivering in fear. He didn't know the tournament was haunted by this past kendoka. He was even afraid he might lose his arm. His sempai just grimaced and putted his arm around of his shoulders.

"Relax, buddy," he said, slapping his hand on the young janitor's shoulder. "This spirit only attacks the other kendoka. We are pretty much safe from his wrath."

Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched by the ghost of a 16 years old boy, with a short dark hair and ember eyes. Anger and hate were shown in his eyes as he placed his left hand on the stump where his right arm used to be.

"Soon…."

XXX

Yamamoto Takeshi was in his father's dojo, cleaning it. Gokudera and Tsuna were helping him, along with their daemons. Tsuna laughed when he saw Ryuki using her tail as a feather dust to clean up the shelves while Tenma was pushing a cart with some old kendo materials.

"Maa maa, I am very thankful for helping me out to clean the dojo, guys," Takeshi said, thanking to Tsuna and Gokudera for helping him.

Tsuna smiled to Takeshi.

"No problem Takeshi-kun. It's a pleasure to help you," he said. "You're my friend and you can count on me for anything."

But Gokudera only scoffed in response.

"I am only helping because Tsuna-sama came to help too."

Ryuki stopped cleaning the shelves as she looked at Gokudera with curious eyes.

"But Haya-chan, didn't you come here to escape from Hinito-sama's Spartan training?"

Gokudera growled as he ordered Ryuki to shut up. Takeshi was laughing as Tsuna chuckled lightly, saying he does not blame Gokudera for wanting to escape from the training once for a while since his grandmother's methods of training are not easy.

"Is Hinoto-obaa-sama a harsh person?"

Then, Takeshi didn't hear anything but silence. Tsuna and Gokudera's eyes were hidden behind of their locks. Even their daemons were in silent.

"We do not want talk about it," they said to Takeshi, in a gloomy way.

Takeshi could not help but sweatdrop. From their reaction, Hinoto's training must be no joke. No wonder she was one of the most respected miko in the whole country. Tenma looked the things at the small kart, and she noticed a bamboo sword with Takeshi's name written on it.

"Hey Takeshi-kun, do you do kendo too? I thought you were only focusing in baseball," Tenma commented.

Takeshi looked at the kirin confused. What she was talking about? Takeshi answered he only does baseball and not kendo, thought his father wanted him to do. Tenma got the bamboo sword out from the kart and gave it to Tsuna to exam it.

"She's right. I can see your name written in the sword, Takeshi-kun."

Takeshi and Gokudera went to Tsuna, to see the bamboo sword closer. They could see faint kanjis written on the bamboo sword. One of them was Takeshi but they could not see well the other kanji. Tsuna narrowed his eyes when he looked at the bamboo sword closer. It had an ominous aura on it. Takeshi was also curious; he could feel something odd in the bamboo sword. When the young Yamamoto touched the bamboo sword, his eyes widen in shock. The last thing he saw before everything went dark was Tsuna's concerned eyes calling for him.

Xxx

At the kendo stadium, two teams were in the semi-finals of National Kendo Tournament. They were ready to get the title of the champion for their school. In the stands, and 4 special spectators were watching the finals of the tournament.

"Tell me again, why are we're here watching a boring kendo march?" asked a 9 years old boy with a red-brown hair and ember eyes. His face had a bored expression.

That earned him a slap on his head. The boy whined as he nursed his thump on head. He glared at a small toddler wearing a fedora hat and a small black suit. There's a bright yellow pacifier around of his neck. He was holding on his small hands a paper fan, which was used to slap the boy's head.

"Stupid Kouga, you need learn all the ways to fight. After all, your father asked me to train you to be the next leader of CEDEF while he is training to be the next Vongola boss with the Ninth. Fighting is not brute force only. You need learn to be patient and learn how to use your enemy's strength against him. That's what the kendo is for. To learn all those things," the little toddler said.

The dirty blond boy, almost the same age as the red-brown haired one, giggled.

"But Reborn-san, patience is not in Kouga nii-san's vocabulary."

"Don't be so mean, Fuuta," Kouga moaned. "But really Reborn, why the heck this guy is even with us?" He appointed to an older man beside him. "He's is a bad influence to us. Needless to say I am even surprised mother allowed us to go out with him."

The older man, scoffed in response. He didn't want to be there either. He had better things to do than watching some boring sport that does not involve sexy and beautiful females.

"I'd ask the same, brat. I do not mind watching sports but kendo is not what I have in mind," the older man said sighing. "I would rather watch beautiful sportswomen, showing all their beauty and grace in sports and not hiding them in horrible equipment suits like Kendo."

That earned him a slap on his head from Reborn's paper fan.

"Sadly I had no other choice; I had to call an 'adult' to accompany us to the tournament," Reborn said, explaining the situation to the boys. "After your disappearance the other day, your mother almost went nuts. She wanted you both to stay home where she could keep an eye on you, and since I can't do much because I am trapped in a baby form, Shamal was only adult to take us here and convince her you'd be looked after."

Kouga sighted in frustration as he watched the kendoka preparing themselves for the first round. Really, it was not his and Fuuta's fault that they can't remember anything from the kidnapping. The only thing he remembers from the incident was hearing someone playing a flute before everything went dark to them. After that, they only woke up on their mother's arms. Kouga still do not understand what exactly happened to them. Then, Kouga's eyes widen as he felt something strange, something evil.

Reborn noticed Kouga's strange behavior before he heard a screaming. Reborn's eyes widened in shock as he saw one of the kendoka's whole right arm ripped off.

"What the..!"

He was not the only one. The other kendoka were also being attacked by something invisible, something that was cutting off all the kendoka's arms. Reborn quickly made Leon becoming a special visor, to see if there's any assassin using equipment that making him or her invisible. But to his surprise, he caught no heat signal from anywhere.

"What's going on here?" Reborn wondered, gritting his teeth.

XXX

Takeshi woke up and opened his eyes. He noticed he was some kind of stadium. He looked around and he noticed that the stadium was the National Kendo Tournament's stadium. Then, he saw two strange figures in the center of the ring. Takeshi noticed one of the boys looked extremely like him, while the other one was missing his right arm. The second figure was holding a real sword in his left hand. Takeshi felt tension in the air.

"Takeshi-kun, please, calm down, everything will be alright," Takeshi's replica said to the other boy.

Takeshi was now surprised. The boy with a missing arm had the same name as him! But what was happening there? Why were they arguing?

"I'm a nobody again, Captain! Because of those bastards who were jealous of my improvement, they made me lose my arm! Kendo was the only thing I was good at," said the Takeshi with the missing right arm, sobbing.

"Takeshi-kun, I know you're upset for what they did to you, but they already have been punished. I already have expelled them from our kendo club and from my father's dojo. They will be forced to do community services," the captain said, trying to calm down the other boy.

But the other one boy was not listening. He gritted his teeth before looking at his captain with furious and hateful eyes and pointed the sword at him.

"THAT'S NOT ENOUGH!" he shouted "CAN ANYBODY BRING MY RIGHT ARM BACK? CAN YOU BRING MY ARM BACK, CAPTAIN!" Tears were rolling down on his face as he placed the sword to his neck. "KENDO WAS EVERYTHING TO ME, CAPTAIN! THEY TOOK IT AWAY FROM ME!"

Takeshi and the captain's eyes widen in horror when they saw what he was planning.

"NO!" the captain cried out, rushing to stop the boy from killing himself. But it was too late; the boy had already cut his throat with the sword.

XXX

Takeshi immediately sits up in his bed, pulling himself out of the nightmare. His forehead was layered with sweat, and his eyes were wide with fear.

"It was just a dream…"

"Takeshi! Are you okay?" his father asked with concern.

Takeshi looked at his side and saw his father was beside him. Not only him, Tsuna, Gokudera and their daemons were also in his room (Ryuki warped on Gokudera's neck and Tenma beside her master), looking worried. From what he could see, his father didn't feel the presence of the daemons.

"I am happy, Takeshi-kun," Tsuna said, happy to see his first friend was alright. "You fainted so suddenly, that made us worried. Your father even closed the sushi bar after we took you to your room."

"What happened to you, anyway?" Gokudera asked. "After you touched that bamboo sword, you fainted."

Takeshi looked confused.

"I did?"

That made Takeshi's father confused. What they were talking about? Tsuna showed the bamboo sword to him. The older Yamamoto gasped in surprised when he saw the bamboo sword. It was the bamboo sword that belonged to his dear friend, a long time ago.

"This bamboo sword…," he muttered softly, with the bamboo sword in his hands.

"I know it does not belong to Takeshi-kun," Tsuna said to Takeshi's father. "Whose did it belong to?"

Takeshi's father quieted. He gripped the sword on his hands as he remembered the worst memories of his youth. The older Yamamoto explained that he was the captain of the kendo club in Namimori middle school, 25 years ago. Around that time, he had met a boy whose name was Aoyama Takeshi. Aoyama Takeshi was bullied very much at the school for not being good at anything, but he mentioned he saw talent in the boy when he caught him practicing kendo with a broom.

"Indeed he was a very talented kendoka," the older Yamamoto said, softly. "I never saw a kid improve so fast. Even my father was very proud at how much Takeshi-kun had improved. I made him my co-captain when our kendo club went to the finals for the National Kendo Tournament. But not everyone was happy about his extraordinary growth. Mochida Sanosuke and two other boys were extremely jealous of Takeshi-kun, especially when my father decided to teach him the Shigure Soen Ryu despite the fact that he had sworn to teach no one besides me."

The boys could feel the tension in the air. They knew something very bad happened to this boy. Takeshi's father looked very upset when he remembered the events of that tournament.

"Mochida Sanosuke and the others 2 boys ruined Takeshi-kun's right arm beyond to repair," The older man said, making everybody in the room gasped in shock. "The doctors tried but they could not save the arm. They had to amputate it. That destroyed him. Mochida and the others went to trial, and they were forced to do two years of community services while my father expelled them from our dojo and I disbanded the club. But that was not just enough for Takeshi-kun. He wanted his arm back, to be able to wield the sword right again. But it was impossible, so he killed himself."

Silence fell in the room after they heard Takeshi's father story. Tsuna was crying for the death of the older Yamamoto's friend. When this person finally found the way he felt right, it was brutally taken away from him. Takeshi now understood the meaning behind of his dream. That captain who looked like him so much was his own father, trying to stop his friend from killing himself but he failed him. Then the silent was broken they heard a deep voice.

"So, you're all here. That's good."

They all looked at the window and a white tiger jumping in. Tsuna, Takeshi, Gokudera were surprised as they saw Byakko entering the room. As for Takeshi's father…

"W- W-WHAT IS THAT THING?"

He simply freaked out. He was ready to attack the tiger, but Tsuna stopped him.

"Calm down, Yamamoto-san!" Tsuna shouted. "That's Byakko; he's Obaa-chan's daemon."

"Daemon?" The older Yamamoto asked. The word daemon sounded familiar to him for some unknown reason.

"Hey, why Yamamoto Tsuyoshi-sama can see the big mean tiger, while he can't see me and Tenma?" Ryuki asked, furiously. That also caught Takeshi and Gokudera's attention. They noticed the older Yamamoto can see the white tiger but not their daemons. Byakko smirked as he showed to them a rosary around of his neck. He explained the Tenchi Rosary is a relic of Hakurei family that allows daemons and ghosts to be seen by normal people.

"Why are you using this?" Tsuna asked. If Byakko was using this rosary that allows him to be seen by normal people, that means the subject is serious.

"I was sent by Hinoto to give you your next mission. That mission also involves you, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi-san."

Tsuyoshi was now confused. What he meant by that? Tsuna was also confused, why his grandmother wants a normal person like Takeshi's father being involved in supernatural stuff?

"Aoyama Takeshi rings any bells?"

Tsuyoshi's face went pale.

XXX

They were in the front of the stadium but they could not go any closer because there were two police officers. They hid behind a cabin phone. Byakko took off the rosary to be invisible to the normal people.

"I don't know if it's such a good idea, children," Tsuyoshi muttered. "That's a crime scene, for Buddah's sake!"

"It's the only way, Yamamoto-san," Tsuna said. "This ghost only shows up in the finals of the kendo tournament. We must go there now and deal with him now. Or else there will be new victims next year."

Tsuyoshi quieted at that statement. He could not believe Aoyama Takeshi was the one responsible for those kids missing their arms in the finals. He was doing the same thing what Mochida and the others did to him years back.

"Why?" He asked suddenly. "Takeshi-kun loved kendo very much. He even liked teaching the small kids the way of kendo and how kendo gave meaning to life. Why is he destroying those kids' dreams?"

The boys were silent as they felt the older man's grief. They could not imagine seeing a friend they used to know doing such terrible things to young people who have the same passion and love for the kendo as that friend had in the past, before he lost his arm.

"Yamamoto-san, I will not lie but when a person leaves this world with hate and full of regrets, they become vengeful spirits. They can be sometimes more troublesome than youkai themselves. They will do atrocities in the name of their own justice and to the people they think wronged them," Tsuna explained. Tsuyoshi could not believe what he was hearing.

"So, why I am here?"

That was also the question of everyone there. Tsuna smiled before answering.

"Probably Obaa-chan wants to give Aoyama Takeshi a chance to finally rest in peace. For that a loved one is needed. You said you gave him a chance to live, so please give him a chance for him to finally rest in peace."

Yamamoto was quiet. He remembered his friend, and how often Aoyama Takeshi told Yamamoto that he was the one that gave Aoyama a reason to live, before that terrible day where Aoyama lost his arm and then killed himself. Now it's time for Tsuyoshi to give a reason for his friend to rest in peace.

"That's nice, guys, but how will we go to inside? There are two officers guarding the entrance." Gokudera asked. "Our daemons already have confirmed there are no other entrances, except for the main one."

That's when Byakko smirked.

"Do not worry. Hinoto already planned for this."

Everybody (except for Tsuyoshi who could not see or hear Byakko) looked confused. What did he mean by that? Their question was answered when they saw Hinoto going towards the two officers guards.

"Obaa-chan? What she's doing here?" Tsuna asked surprised. It was very rare to see his grandmother outside of the shrine.

"Excuse me gentlemen. I lost my little kitty. He should be around here. Have one of you seen a white cat?" Hinoto asked to the two officers.

The two officers looked to each other confused.

"Err… sorry, madam. We didn't see any cat."

"Oh, I see," Hinoto made a disappointed face. "Would you gentlemen help me find my Byakko-kun? I would be very thankful."

"Er…Madam, I don't think…"

"You wouldn't leave an old lady to find her kitty cat alone in the middle of night, would you?" she asked as she smiled at them. The officers paled when they saw Hinoto smiling to them. It was giving a sensation of terror inside of them. Something that wants to curse or kill them.

" We will help to find your kitty," the officers said in unison to Hinoto.

"Thank you, gentlemen. I promise it will not take so much of your time."

Hinoto and the two officers went in the opposite direction to find the "kitty." The elder woman gave a sign to Tsuna and others. Tsuna nodded as he and the others got the opportunity to get inside of the stadium. Byakko gave to Tsuna the Tenchi Rosary and told the boy to use the rosary on the ghost, so that Tsuyoshi could see him. Tusna nodded as they rushed to the stadium while Byakko returned to Hinoto. Once inside the stadium, they went straight to the arena to find the ghost of Aoyama Takeshi.

"Hey dad," Takeshi called his father. "I need ask you something. You named me after your friend, didn't you?"

Tsuyoshi made a sad smile.

"Yes, I did," He said. "Your mother and I wanted my child have the same passion and love for his favorite sport, just how Takeshi-kun loved kendo. You came out just like him, only you love baseball rather kendo."

Tsuyoshi smiled. In a way, his son was just like his friend in the past. Then, he looked at his son with a serious look on his face.

"Just promise me you will never try to kill yourself like how Takeshi-kun did. He could still have practice Kendo, even with one arm. I saw several people who lost all their limps and still doing amazing things."

Takeshi was quiet but he understood his father feelings. For some reason, he remembered the dream he had once, where he broke his arm and was ready to kill himself for it, if it wasn't for a person who gave him a reason to live. The day after this dream, he met Tsuna and Tenma. Tsuna looked very much like the person from his dream, and he knew he was that Tsuna was someone who could rely on. And Takeshi did not regret becoming Tsuna's friend.

"We're here," Tsuna said, as they arrived at the arena. The whole group could smell blood in the air. Tsuna and the others looked around, hoping to see any sign of Aoyama Takeshi.

"Weird, I can't see him anywhere. I can't feel his presence either," Tsuna commented.

"Is it possible he already left?" Gokudera asked.

Tsuyoshi gritted his teeth as he closed his hands into a first. He will not leave the things in the way they are. He failed to save his friend back then, but he will not fail again.

"Takeshi-kun! Are you here? Takeshi-kun!" shouted Tsuyoshi. Suddenly an ominous wind entered in the arena, at the same time the Tenchi Rosary in Tusna's hand glowed. The rosary glowed as it floated to the center of the arena. Tsuyoshi's eyes widened in shock when he saw a 16 years old boy, wearing black pants, sandals and bandages around of his chest. The rosary wrapped around the transparent boy's neck as a sword appeared in his left hand. He was missing his right arm. It was Aoyama Takeshi's spirit.

"T-Takeshi-kun?" asked Tsuyoshi, totally shocked. He entered to the arena, but he was on full alert since he didn't know what the ghost of his friend can do.

"It's been a while, Captain Yamamoto," the ghost of Aoyama Takeshi said. "You changed a lot."

Tsuyoshi couldn't help, but chuckle.

"Well, it's been 25 years since the last time you saw me," he said. "You didn't change at all since the last time I saw you, Takeshi-kun."

It was Aoyama Takeshi's turn to chuckle.

"Time stops for the dead, Captain. And why did you stop kendo? Kendo was not your passion as well?"

Tsuyoshi frowned as he looked in the ghost boy's eyes. The former captain started to explain after what happened to Aoyama, Tsuyoshi lost the capacity to be a captain and to practice kendo. After he mastered his family style, Shigure Soen Ryu, Tsuyoshi started to focus on his culinary studies, opening the sushi bar along his deceased wife, Chidori. He hadn't held a bamboo sword for a long time.

"That was a real shame, captain," Aoyama Takeshi said to him. "You were great in kendo. After my death, I could not leave this place for some reason. Each year I would watch young kids in the finals of the tournament. Most of them arrive here by cheating. That makes me so angry. Last year I snapped when I saw a kid with a broken arm and unable to participate in the tournament because another kendoka broke it due to jealousy. I could not stand it anymore. I had to start cutting off those arrogant fools' arms. I admit, the sensation of cutting their arms was delicious. Especially this year's kendoka. One of them was Mochida's son. Now his son will feel the pain to not hold a bamboo sword anymore!"

Aoyama Takeshi laughed insanely. He still saw the reaction of Mochida Kensuke, Mochida Sanosuke's son, upon losing his arm and realizing that he would never be able to practice kendo ever again. Tsuyoshi growled. He could not believe what his friend had done to those young kids.

"Takeshi-kun…. You…!" Tsuyoshi growled, gritting his teeth. Then, using his ghost powers, Aoyama Takeshi took a bamboo sword from the wall and threw it to Tsuyoshi. The older Yamamoto caught it.

"How about this, I will leave if you defeat me in a fight, captain," Aoyama said, giving an evil smile. Suddenly, Takeshi was lifted in the air and went towards Aoyama. Tsuna and Gokudera cried out his name as they went to rescue his friend but they hit an invisible wall.

"What the…" Tsuna got up and touched the invisible wall with his hand. "A barrier?"

"Let me do it, Tsuna-sama," Gokudera said to Tsuna

Gokudera took from his pocket a brush and he started to draw in the air a kanji for unlock. From Hinoto's training, the older woman said Gokudera's especial ability was to create, destroy and even go through barriers , which was how they had been able to cross Aobozu's barrier. Gokudera made a hand sign.

"Kai!"

Nothing happened. Gokudera didn't understand. He should be able to take the barrier down. Aoyama saw Gokudera's attempt to enter Aoyama's area.

"Ah, I see. You're a barrier master," he commented as Takeshi struggled to get himself free. "Sorry to disappoint you, kid, but you're not powerful enough to take down a barrier made of emotions."

Then, Aoyama looked at Takeshi and smiled.

"You know, did anyone tell you you're a carbon copy of your father when he was your age?" Aoyama asked as he looked at Takeshi in an apologized way. "Sorry, I need to borrow your body for a little bit."

"Takeshi-kun! Don't you dare to harm my son!" Tsuyoshi shouted at Aoyama angrily. He rushed to them.

Takeshi gasped as he felt something weird going to his body. Then everything went dark. Aoyama had entered in Takeshi's body. When Takeshi opened his eyes, he smiled as he blocked Tsuyoshi's attack with his own bamboo sword.

"That's the wrong Takeshi, Captain," Takeshi smiled, but Tusyoshi knew it was not his son who was smiling.

"Takeshi-kun! Leave my son's body!"

"Hah, I will leave if you defeat me in a fight, captain!"

Tsuna and Gokudera gritted their teeth. They knew the situation was ugly. With determined faces, they turned to their daemons.

"Tenma!"

"Ryuki!"

"Over soul! Weapon mode now!"

Tenma and Ryuki glowed in a bright orange and red aura as they become lights. Tenma became 4 golden rings with magatama around of Tsuna's wrists and ankles while Ryuki became a red bow with a golden dragon on Gokudera's hand. Tsuna used his sky flames while Gokudera used his arrows made of storm flames on the barrier. But nothing happened.

"Damn it! What we should do, Tsuna-sama?" Gokudera asked. "None of our techniques are working!"

"We have no choice; we have to leave Yamamoto-san and Takeshi-kun deal with Aoyama." Tsuna said as Tenma and Ryuki returned to normal.

"Let's hope Yamamoto-san can reach to the two Takeshi's hearts," Tenma commented as they watch the fight, helpless.

Tsuyoshi and Aoyama were still exchanging blows to each other. Throughout the dark situation, Tsuyoshi could feel something odd in the attacks. It was almost like Aoyama was having fun.

"Your attacks are still good, Captain," Aoyama said in Takeshi's body. "Even after you stopped practicing kendo for many years, your attacks are still graceful."

Aoyama could not help but to praise his captain's ability with sword. He could see a samurai within his captain.

"Takeshi-kun, let's stop this madness. I know what happened to you was horrible but you have to let it go, to move on," Tsuyoshi said to his friend.

Aoyama frowned when Tsuyoshi mentioned this. How can he move on after what happened to him? With his dream destroyed by jealousy? Tsuyoshi could see what Aoyama was thinking.

"You know, after I saw you died, I started to doubt myself and people around me. Many people at kendo club were doing kendo not because they liked it, but to become more popular. I was depressed after I disbanded the kendo club, all the way until I graduated. But I finally moved on thanks to Chidori-chan."

The name caught Aoyama Takeshi's attention.

"Chidori? You can't be talking about Shirozaki Chidori? The president of the Supernatural Club?"

Tsuna and Gokudera sweatdropped. President of the Supernatural Club? What was Aoyama talking about? Tsuyoshi laughed at his reaction. He couldn't blame his old friend for reacting that way. During their middle school days, Shirozaki Chidori was a gothic girl, and she was always talking about supernatural stuff. Sometimes Tsuyoshi had even caught her talking 'alone.' Most of the people were pretty much terrified of her, but he could see through her gothic makeup and black clothes.

"Yeah, I know, but if you remove the makeup and the black clothes, you will see she's a beautiful girl. We became closer after you died. She was the reason why I didn't go nuts. Ok, maybe she almost made my parents going nuts when she insisted to have a black wedding dress for our wedding," he said. He laughed at the memory of his parents' faces when Chidori asked for a black wedding dress. It was priceless.

Everyone in the room sweatdropped again. What kind of a girl wants a black dress for her wedding? Usually girls dream about beautiful white dresses, not black. Tsuyoshi even mentioned that his friends made jokes that he was getting marry to a black witch.

"But you know what she told me when she was pregnant of our son? She told me she wanted to name him 'Takeshi.' Because she wanted our child to have the same passion and love for his favorite sport that you did for kendo. And he does, only his love is for baseball."

Aoyama couldn't believe what he was hearing. They named their son after him? Suddenly, he felt pain. Tsuyoshi saw Aoyama cringe in pain in his son's body. As Tsuyoshi move to get closer, Tsuna stopped him.

"Don't get closer to him, Yamamoto-san!" Tsuna exclaimed. "Takeshi-kun is fighting to get his body back!"

Takeshi screamed as he finally expelled Aoyama from his body. The two Takeshis both fell to their knees, taking deep breaths.

"You know, I am …like you… Aoyama-san," Takeshi said, between the breaths. Aoyama looked up at the clone of his former captain. When Takeshi finally recovered his breath, he pushed himself to his feet and locked gazes with the ghost.

"Once I dreamed that I broke my arm really bad. I was about to kill myself when someone rescued me from my darkness. This person gave me a reason to live. Father gave you a reason to live when he introduced you to kendo, and I have to thank you for being my father's friend. If it wasn't for that, I would not get a cool name, would I?" Takeshi said smiling.

Aoyama couldn't believe what he was hearing. The boy was really seriously thankful that he had Aoyama's name? Suddenly a blue aura covered Takeshi, startling everyone, minus Tsuyoshi who could not see anything.

"That's sensation… could it be…?" said Tsuna, surprised at what he was seeing.

"What's happening to the baseball freak?" Gokudera asked.

That's when their daemons answered.

"It's the birth of a new daemon!"

A blue flame formed in the front of the young baseball player. Takeshi smiled as he kneed and petted the blue flame.

"I was expecting for you," he said.

The flame soon formed a small creature. Its fur was blue with a white fluffy mane around of its head. It also had a white fluffy curled tail. Its body reminds him of a lion but its head and a tail reminds him a dog, an akita dog to be exactly.

"Hello, I was also expecting to see you, master," his daemon said, smiling to him. The creature's eyes had the same color as Takeshi

"What exactly are you?"

"Oh me? I am a shiisa- a liondog."

"Wow, a shiisa, that's pretty cool!" he smiled to her.

"I know, right?" she said grinning. " Shiisa are pretty cool, and I am lucky to be a pretty one with a cool master."

Both of them started to laugh. Gokudera slapped his forehead, saying there were now two idiots to handle. Tsuna and Tenma chuckled as Ryuki mentioned Takeshi's shiisa was cute and the mane was fluffy.

"Hey Aoyama-san, can I name my daemon Aoyama?"

That made Aoyama Takeshi looking at him confused.

"Why you want to name your daemon after my last name?"

"Why not?" he said, smile still one his face. "I mean, if I was named after you, I think my daemon should also be named after you, since she's my soul that resides outside me in an animal-like form."

"I think Aoyama sounds like a cool name. And since I am blue the name suits me. Can I have your name?"

She looked at Aoyama with big puppy eyes. When Aoyama looked at the daemon's puppy eyes, he laughed. Laughed so much that tears came out of his eyes as he looked at Tsuyoshi.

"Captain! The puppy eyes remind me of that one time when you used puppy eyes on our teacher, to convince her not to give you detention for forgetting to do your homework."

Tsuyoshi blushed embarrassed, shouting it was the only time he used puppy eyes to get out from trouble, but Aoyama mentioned he did caught Tsuyoshi doing puppy eyes in other situations since studying was not his forte. Takeshi laughed too as he commented that he and his father are very much alike. Tsuyoshi could not help but laugh too.

Aoyama didn't remember the last time he laughed like this, but he felt good, warm and happy. Suddenly he stared to glow in a golden color, surprising everyone. What was happening? Tsuna explained that finally Aoyama Takeshi found the inner peace in his heart and now he was ready to go to the spiritual world. Every time a tormented soul found peace in his or her heart, their spirits leave the earth and go to the spiritual world, to rest in peace and wait for their time to be once again reborn. Aoyama looked at Tsuyoshi for the last time.

"Thank you, everyone and Captain. I am sorry for everything I put you through. Just don't give up on Kendo because of me," said Aoyama before disappearing; only leaving the rosary behind.

Takeshi smiled as he took the Tenchi Rosary from the ground and put it around of his daemon's neck, making her visible to his father's eyes.

"Dad, that's Aoyama, my daemon." Takeshi said, introducing the small shiisa to his father.

"Hello father, nice to meet you," the shiisa said with a big smile for her master's father.

Tsuyoshi couldn't help but smile. He petted the shiisa. He could see that Shiisa was a part of his son's soul. Tsuna and Gokudera looked at each other and smiled too. They were happy that everything was over.

Unbeknownst to them, a small figure hid his presence from everyone. And this figure watched everything that happened.

"Interesting…"

To be continue it.

Here is the newest chapter of Shaman. I hope you like this chapter. I admit, this chapter gave me trouble since I wanted to have Tsuyoshi involved this. But the chapter came out pretty good. Do not forget to leave your reviews. I want to know your opinion about the story. Oh yeah, you're welcome to suggest any supernatural situation for the story.

I wanna thanks to KuraiArcoiris for helping me in this chapter.

Next chapter: A cry for help, a priest's angst and the Headless mule

Cyclopedia

Shiisa: Liondog; guardian spirits of entrance of shrine and temples. They protect sacred placed from all type of evil.

Kendoka: Practitioners of kendo are called kendōka , meaning "someone who practices kendo",or occasionally kenshi , meaning "swordsman".


	4. Chapter 4

Shaman  
Chapter 4: A cry for help, a priest's angst and the headless mule

*Tsuna's pov*

It's me, Hakurei Tsuna again. Last time we had to deal with the vengeful ghost of a deceased kendoka. He was angry because in the past a jealous kendoka made him lose his arm and ended his dream to be a kendo master. Takeshi's father, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi-san, was the captain of the ghost kendoka, and thanks to the Yamamoto family we could make Aoyama Takeshi's ghost resting in peace.

But our greatest surprise was when Takeshi-kun summoned a cute and sympathetic shiisa (Liondog) named Aoyama. Both of them have the same personality, much to Gokudera-kun's annoyance. Now the three of us are training are training to control better our powers and help people around.

*End of Tsuna's pov*

Tsuna, Gokudera and Takeshi were in the gardens with Hinoto tutoring how to mediate along with their daemons. Tsuna had no problem meditating with Tenma, but Gokudera was another story.

"Gokudera-kun, you should relax more and not focusing on anything," Hinoto said, without opening her eyes.

Gokudera released a frustrated sight. He tried really hard but he coudln't focus on the meditation.

"You're still upset about not being able to destroy that barrier made by Aoyama Takehsi, aren't you?" the old miko asked, as she opened her eyes and looked very kindly at Gokudera.

"Y-yeah." He answered , embarrassed. Ryuki looked at him with comforting eyes, as she nuzzles his face.

"Do not worry; it takes years for a person to master the powers of barrier. You're just beginning, but I am amazed that you can be away from your daemon about 7 meters. When Tsu-kun first summoned Tenma, the limit of distance between them were 4 meters. After several years of training, his limit now is 30 meters. That means you have some talent for supernatural stuff for someone who just summoned your daemon."

Gokudera looked at the elder miko, still blushing. After he and Takeshi had summoned their daemon, they learned a lot about themselves and their daemon: first, Gokudera learned he was a barrier master, which means his talent is create, pass through, and destroy barriers while Yamamoto's talent was being a ESPer, which meant he could pick up sensory impressions of others through handling an object or visiting a location the person has touched or been to. That was the reason why he could pick up his father and Aoyama Takeshi's memory through the old bamboo sword. Until he was able to control his power, Takeshi needed to use gloves all time, or else he might see things he should not, like the incident that happened a day after Takeshi got Aoyama, when he accidentally got his baseball teammate's bat and saw the teammate's memories with his girlfriend in a hotel room. After that embarrassed incident, Takeshi swore not to remove the gloves, except in the bath and during mealtimes, until he master his new abilities.

Another thing they learned about were their daemons; first- the daemons were always the opposite genders of their masters. As Tsuna-sama and Hinoto-sama put it, every soul has a male half and a female half, and when the daemon is born, they represent the other half of the soul outside of their masters' body. So the daemon would reflect the gender of the master by being the opposite gender. Now Gokudera understood why their daemons were females while Hinoto-sama's was a male. The second thing they learned about daemons was that the color of their bodies represented the color of their flames, like Ryuki's red body represented Gokudera's storm flames while Aoyama's blue body represented Takeshi's rain flames and Tenma's orange body represented Tsuna's sky flames. But Gokudera wondered what kind of flame Hinoto-sama had since Byakko was a white tiger, and Gokudera had no knowledge about a white flame. Hinoto-sama only told him her flames were represented by Byakko's red-brown stripes, which made the silver haired boy wonder even more. And the 3rd and most important thing they learned about daemons, there was a limit to the distance that a daemon could be away from its master. Daemons and masters were one being, a single soul, and if they were separated from each other beyond their distance limit, both master and daemon will become very ill and weak and, in extreme cases, die. And when a daemon dies, the master dies too and vice e versa. That's why they needed to learn how to fight together and also train to increase the limit of distance. For now, Gokudera and Ryuki's limit of distance was 7 meters while Takeshi and Aoyama's was 5 meters. Tsuna and Tenma's distance was 30 meters thanks to the years of training. Hinoto could go much further than 3 of them together since she is a master, but the wise miko recommended the boys remain together with their daemons whenever possible.

"Takeshi-kun and Aoyama-chan are able to mediate peacefully." Hinoto smiled when she saw how serene Takeshi and Aoyama were.

Tsuna and Tenma opened their eyes and looked at Takeshi and Aoyama. They blinked several times as they noticed something.

"Eer… Oba-chan, I think they're asleep," muttered Tsuna.

Hinoto blinked several times as she noticed Takeshi and Aoyama were really sleeping. She glared at the sleeping teen and daemon with an angry vein in her forehead. She looked at Byakko as her daemon became a paperfan ready to hit their heads. Tsuna and Gokudera pitied them.

XXX

Elsewhere that night, Reborn was accompanying a woman with dark pink hair and a pair of goggles resting on her neck. She was Bianchi, Gokudera's sister and Reborn's lover. They both left the hospital, after Bianchi had bandaged the right side of her face thanks to a certain red haired boy.

Bianchi would have killed the boy for scaring her face if Reborn hadn't stopped her.

"I apologize for what happened, Bianchi. But do not forget you were completely at fault for trying to kill my student," Reborn said to Bianchi. "You're lucky Kouga did not blind your eye."

Bianchi frowned as she remembered what happened that afternoon. She had planned to give her poison soda to the boy, so that she could set Reborn free from the burden of tutoring a brat. But somehow the boy had sensed her poison and in a matter of seconds had attacked her like a wild animal. Reborn had needed to stop him.

"How…" she asked softly, placing her hand on her bandaged face "How did he sense my poison? Not even a bloodhound could smell my poison. I am very careful to make my poison tasteless and scentless. But that nine years old brat could still tell it was there."

Reborn looked at Bianchi; she was totally in stage of shock. He couldn't blame her for feeling like that. Bianchi was the famous Poison Scorpion, using her poison cooking to kill all her targets, not leaving any smell or taste in her poisons. Her pride was wounded when Kouga, an inexperienced 9 years old, sensed the poison and attacked her.

"Reborn, is that boy even a human?"

Reborn didn't answer her since he questioned it himself. When he first introduced himself to Kouga, the boy didn't attack him but he knew the hitman was on another level from Kouga, so the boy was only civil enough not to attack Reborn, but Kouga treated the hitman as if Reborn ever hurts or even uses Fuuta or his mother in any of the hitman's games, Kouga would attack Reborn without any hesitation. Truth to be told, the real reason for Reborn calling Shamal was for the pervert doctor to exam Kouga's blood, to find out any reason for the boy's extreme aggression towards people, except for Fuuta and Nana since neither of the boy's parents had said anything about Kouga's odd aggression. And to complicate the hitman's tutoring more, Reborn had no idea what kind of flame Kouga had because the color of the boy's dying will flame did not belong to any elemental sky flames.

_"__Why__did I accept this job?"_ Reborn thought frustrated.

Then, his thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone screaming. Reborn, being the best hitman in the world, immediately felt the terrible killing intent and danger. He quickly ordered Bianchi to stay there while he checked out. Bianchi nodded to him and whispered for him to be careful.

When Reborn arrived at the location, he couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing. A man lay face down on the ground unconscious, and above the man there stood a creature Reborn never seen before; it looked like a horse but in the place of the head burned a furious flame. Its mane and tail were also made of fire. The creature let out a terrible sound that seemed like a demonic snicker. Reborn had covered his ears because the snicker was so loud that it hurt his ears, and he merely watched as the fire creature running off. Reborn went over to check the man on the ground.

"Hey, are you ok?"

Reborn's eyes widen in shock when he saw the guy's condition; his eyeballs were ripped off, along with his teeth and nails from his fingers. There was one word in his mind.

"Mierda!"

XXX

In the next day, Tsuna, Gokudera and Takeshi were having lunch on the school's roof. They and their daemons were chatting about the things that were happening lately.

"What? Another person was attacked?" Tsuna asked , shocked.

Takeshi nodded as he started to explain the last victim was a client of the sushi restaurant. His father was shocked when he heard the news from the wife's victim.

"Papa visited his friend," Aoyama said, her dog ears were down in sadness. "He said like all the past victims, his friend's eyes, teeth and nails were ripped off."

Tsuna and Tenma felt chills in their spines when Aoyama gave the details of the victims. Tsuna could not help but feeling he was in a Criminal Minds episode, especially after seeing an episode where a serial killer rip off his victim's eyes as trophies.

"But guys, this could be a doing of a youkai," Ryuki commented. "Haya-chan and I heard about one of the victims did not lose his teeth and he said he saw fire and heard strong gallops before losing his eyes and nails."

"Are there any youkai that fit that description, Tsuna-sama?" Gokudera asked

Tsuna and Tenma were quiet. Gallops, fire, and removing eyes, nails and teeth. Tsuna didn't know any youkai with that description. This could be a very complicated case. His thoughts were interrupted when he saw a yellow Hitotama flying around them.

"Hum? A hitotama?" Tenma asked in wonder

The teenagers boys and daemons were looking at the small yellow fire ball curiously. Then, the hitotama formed a human figure. The figure was a man, around of his 30 years, short dark brown hair and he had honey eyes. He ghost was wearing a black golden trimmed priest robe with a red scarf around his shoulders. The ghost kneeled and looked at them with disappear in his eyes.

"Please, I extremely need your help!" begged him.

Tsuna and the others blinked confused.

XXX

At the Sawada residence, Nana was preparing dinner while Fuuta and Kouga were doing their school project in their room. Kouga looked worried while they were doing their project.

"Fuuta, please, tell me you know Portuguese," Kouga begged to his foster brother. Fuuta looked at him, with an apologize expression in his face.

"Sorry Kouga nii-san, I may know Italian, Japanese and English, but I don't know how to speak and read Portuguese."

Kouga groaned. He should not have asked to Fuuta to use his ranking ability in order to know which folklore creature their classmate would use for their myth and legends projects, that way getting some extra scores by choosing a completely different one. From Fuuta's raking, the top last creature their classmates would use was the headless mule. When they saw the picture of the headless mule, they got interested in the legend but the problem most of the information was in Portuguese, a language they can't read or speak.

"Hum… Fuuta, I think it's better we use another subject for our project. Even with the online translation, there are a lot of grammatical errors, and I can't understand anything of it."

"Or we could also ask to Reborn-san for help," Fuuta commented. "I know Reborn-san knows a lot of languages, including Portuguese."

But Kouga didn't like the idea. He was too proud to ask help, especially from Reborn. Kouga was pretty sure if he asks any favor from the hitman, Reborn would want something back. Something that would embarrass Kouga.

"You're right. I want something back," Reborn said, suddenly appearing behind of the two children.

Fuuta and Kouga startled when Reborn showed up out of nowhere. Kouga growled. He hated whenever Reborn did that; hiding his presence and then showing up out of nowhere to startle people.

"Well, how may I help you, my faithful student?" Reborn smirked, and Kouga growled at the hitman as Fuuta showed him the subject of their project.

"You see, Reborn-san, we're working on a myths and folklore legends at school. The teacher said we have to research about a legend and tell this legend to the class. She said legends from other countries are allowed," Fuuta explained as he showed the subject in their laptop.

"And I thought we could get some extra points if we talked about something our classmates have never heard about or bothered to research, so I asked Fuuta to rank the lasted creature our classmate would use and the top one is the headless mule," Kouga explained. "We research at Wikipedia but there's not many details about the mule in English, only in Portuguese since the headless mule is more popular in Brazil and in Portugal."

Reborn looked at the page with interest. The creature in the page was the same creature he saw yesterday; a black mule body with fire name and tail, with fire in the place of the head, with a white cross mark on the chest. From what he was reading, the creature still neighed, usually very loud, just like how it had almost made him deaf last night but something else caught his interest; the headless mule is a woman who was cursed by a priest.

XXX

At the Namimori shrine, the boys and their daemons went into the main temple to talk to the ghost priest about his situation. Hinoto was surprised when she saw their visitor in the main temple.

"My my, what rare occasion, I never thought I would be here to see the day a ghost of a Vongola member would come here in my humble temple," Hinoto said, looking at the ghost, very interested. "Especially from the first generation."

Gokudera gasped, totally shocked when he heard what Hinoto said. He pointed his finger at the ghost priest.

"I knew I knew you from somewhere!" shouted Gokudera. "You're Knuckle; Vongola's first sun guardian!"

Tsuna and Takeshi looked at Gokudera surprised.

"You know this guy, Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna asked.

Gokudera nodded as he started explained who Knuckle was and the ghost's connection with Vongola Primo Giotto. Since Gokudera's family is the ally to the Vongola, Gokudera knew everything about the past generations and that's why he knew Knuckle.

"But what I do not understand why you're here, Knuckle-sama?" Gokudera wondered. "Except for Giotto-sama and Asari-sama, all the first generation's bodies were buried at Italy."

Knuckle sighed. He really didn't want to explain why his spirit was there and not at Italy. But he did not have any choice.

"You're extremely right." Knuckle said, softly. "My body is buried in my hometown at Italy, as my last extreme wish, but I died here in Japan. You see, I came here along with Giotto and Asari, after a close friend extremely betrayed us. Giotto changed his name and he married with a local woman while Asari returned to his clan. And me, well I came here to teach about God and the catholic religion to the local people here since they had become very interested in the western culture to the extreme."

Everyone went silent as they listened to Knuckle's story. Gokudera who had more knowledge about Vongola concluded that Giotto, Asari, and Knuckle came there during the time of Japan's Westernization. Knuckle continued.

"I built a small church at Kokuyo, and I met a girl there. Her name was Yuriko. She was beautiful to the extreme. We become close friends when she became interested in the Bible, and we start to read it to the community. But everything changed because an extreme mistake we did; we sinned together."

The others looked confused.

"Sinned together?" repeated Takeshi. "What do you mean Knuckle-san?"

Knuckle bit his lower lip as he closed his hands into a fist. He started to explain he was with Yuriko in a traditional Japanese celebration, Tanataba Festival. He mentioned they had a lot of fun together but both of them had a low tolerance and the next morning, he woke up in the same futon with Yuriko. Tsuna and other knew what was coming.

"I asked Yuriko to create some space between us, for our extreme sake. She agreed and left to Namimori, to have some time for herself. I had an extremely hard time. I had no idea what to do to the extreme. Giotto and Asari knew about my dilemma, and they said God would forgive me if I really extremely want to follow my heart. So, I decided to give up my priesthood and be with the woman I love. But it was too late. Yuriko died … in the childbirth."

Everyone was shocked. So, their union had resulted in a child, but the mother died in the childbirth. They felt sorry for Knuckle and for Yuriko. Knuckle continued his story. He mentioned he was so angry at Yuriko for not telling him she was pregnant and for dying. And to make the matter worse, he had no idea where his child was.

"I was extremely angry, so angry at Yuriko that I cursed her spirit, though I extremely didn't realize what I did. And now, every night her spirit becomes a monster, a headless mule. I found out when Yuriko herself in her headless mule form killed me. Everyone at that time thought I had extreme killed myself because of Yuriko. Since then, I follow Yuriko everywhere, hoping to fix my mistake and break her curse but Yuriko's headless mule form is fast to extreme. That's why I extremely need your help!" Knuckle begged, bowing to them.

The teens, the elder and their daemons looked at each other. They did not know what to say about this matter. Hinoto asked Knuckle why he wanted their help, when there were other shaman, monks and mikos. Knuckle answered that he saw what they did with Aoyama Takeshi's ghost. They didn't exorcise Aoyama Takeshi right away, not without learning about Aoyama Takeshi's past. They gave to Aoyama Takeshi a chance to find peace in his heart, which happened. Knuckles knew that they were the right people to save Yuriko. Hinoto looked at the boys. Tsuna, Takeshi and Gokudera nodded to the elder miko.

"Alright, we will help you to deal with the headless mule and save your loved one. But you need tell us everything about the headless mule. Headless mules are western youkai and creatures that none of us are familiar with."

Knuckle smiled. After so many years, he could truly smile. He now had a chance to save his beloved and go together into nirvana, as it should have been years ago.

XXX

The next night everyone was ready. Knuckle was beside Hinoto and Byakko while Tsuna, Gokudera and Takeshi were in the center of the park, where the attacks happened the most often. Since they were dealing with a different youkai, Tsuna, Gokudera and Takeshi were wearing different outfits; they are wearing a black skin-tight suit and armor plates on their shoulders, knees, and elbow and special glasses on their eyes.

"Tsu-kun, you look so awesome in this outfit!" Tenma's eyes were shining when she saw Tsuna in his battle suit.

"Haya-chan does not look bad either in this outfit. I think the outfit really suits you well." Ryuki said, happily while rubbing Gokudera's face

"Takeshi-kun, you would look like a ninja if you were wearing a mask and not glasses." Aoyama wagging her tail while grinned at Takeshi as he grinned back.

"I know, right? These outfits are awesome!" Takeshi said. "I didn't know you had these cool outfits, Hinoto-oba-sama."

Hinoto smiled and commented that these outfits belonged to her children when they were shamans in training. Gokudera and Takeshi were surprise; they did not know the older miko had children. Tsuna mentioned Hinoto has 3 children: the oldest ones were twins who are living in Kyoto while the youngest daughter was a doctor working at Kokyo hospital.

"I understand the meaning of the outfits, Oba-chan, but why the glasses?" Tsuna asked as he pointed to the glasses on his face.

"From what Knuckles told us, the headless mule has the power to suck teeth, eyes, and nails from any male looks at her flame head. With the glasses you will not be affected by the mule's ability."

Knuckle was worried. He was worried about the kids' safety and that they might be forced to harm the mule. Hinoto told Knuckle not to be worried. Her apprentices were stronger than what they appeared to be. Knuckle could not help but see his old friends in the children, especially with the children having almost the same personalities. Then, the group started to hear galloping. The boys and their daemons quickly prepared for what was coming.

Suddenly the mule appeared before them with all her fury and breathed flames at them. Gokudera quickly formed a barrier to protect them from the flames. Ryuki took the opportunity to warp herself around the mule and bite the headless mule. With the help of Aoyama, Takeshi summoned a sprinkle of rain to fall on them, hopping the rain flames would cool off the mule's fury.

But to their surprise, the rain didn't affect the mule, and she let out a high neigh. Gokudera, Takeshi and Tsuna hissed in pain as they fell on their knees and covered their ears. Feeling the pain of her master, Ryuki also fell from the pain cause by the mule's neigh, causing her to un-warp herself as the same pain affected Tenma and Aoyama. With the barrier down, the mule took this opportunity to tackle Gokudera and send a powerful kick towards Takeshi. The two boys were thrown against a tree along with their deamons.

"Takeshi! Gokudera-kun!" Tsuna shouted as he saw the mule about to attack him.

Tenma quickly became rings, giving Tsuna speed to avoid the mule's attack. Tsuna glared at the mule. He never thought a western youkai would be so troublesome. He used his speed to try to attack the mule, but to his surprise, the mule was as fast as him. Tsuna hissed as he felt the mule's hooves hit his temple. Both Tsuna and Tenma (returned to her original form) fell on the ground while the glasses on Tsuna's face fell far from them, and Tsuna lost consciousness. Tenma tried to wake Tsuna up but the mule was above them.

The mule gave a powerful stomp, making a cloud of dirt. When the cloud cleared, the mule noticed her victims were not there. Tenma noticed she and Tsuna were floating. Tsuna moaned and opened his eyes. He gasped when he noticed they were floating as he saw his grandmother active her flames. Knuckle gasped in surprise when he saw the color of her dying will flames.

"Y-You extreme use earth flames?!" the dead priest shouted in shock.

Hinoto didn't say anything as she landed gently set Tsuna and Tenma down next to where Gokudera, Yamamoto, and their daemons were. The two boys were also shocked because it was the first time they had seen Hinoto use her flames. With a wave of her hand, Hinoto used her flame's ability to crush the mule on the ground, making the creature unable to move anywhere.

"I think it's the time you remove the curse off this poor soul, Knuckle-san," Hinoto said to Knuckle. The deceased priest flinched at the tone of the old miko voice. But he did what Hinoto said as he walked towards to where the mule is.

"Yuriko?"

The mule let out a high neigh. The high neigh did not affect Knuckle and Hinoto since the priest was dead and the old miko was woman. But the same can't be said for Tsuna, Gokudera, and Takeshi who hissed once more in pain, while covering their ears. Knuckle hugs the mule, tears falling from his eyes.

"Yuriko, please, forgive me to extreme. If I knew about your pregnancy, I would never have left you alone to the extreme. You were the extreme light of my life. Please, Yuriko, come back to me!"

Knuckle's tear fell on the cross mark on her chest. Suddenly the mule glowed, and Knuckle felt arms around him. He opened his eyes and saw the face of his beloved Yuriko. A face he hasn't had seen in centuries. She smiled to him, while tears rolled down on her own face.

"It's been a while, Knuckle-dono."

Knuckle cried harder as he hugged her tightly. He shouted at her to forgive him for everything he had made her going through. Yuriko smiled, saying she forgave him a long time ago, and she had just been waiting for him to get rid of her curse. Suddenly, they started to glow; it was the time for them to go to nirvana. Before they disappeared, Knuckle said one last thing to the miko.

"Be careful with Daemon Spade."

With that final warning, the two spirits became two yellow hitotama and went to the nirvana together.

Hinoto's eyes widened in shock when she heard that name. It was the same one that her friend had told her once in her youth. Did that mean the spirit of Daemon Spade was still around?

"Boys, I apologize for facing such dangerous creature with a higher level than yours," Hinoto said to the boys.

"WHAT? DID YOU SAY ANYTHING, BAA-CHAN?" Tsuna shouted.

Hinoto and Byakko sweatdropped. The high neigh had pretty much damaged boys' hearing.

"I think it's better to call school and tell them usagi and his friends will not coming for the classes for a while, Hinoto," Byakko said to Hinoto, and she nodded.

Unbeknownst to them, a small figure stood hidden in a nearby tree. He hadn't expected to see what he just saw.

"You gotta to be kidding me. Even Knuckle was involved with them?" Reborn whispered to himself, as he turned off the power of his pacifier. The yellow pacifier allowed him to see things normal people couldn't. "And the flames she used, they're the same as Kouga."

XXX

That same night, in Namimori family Graveyard, a shadow figure was standing before of the tombstone of someone named Sawada Ieyasu.

The shadow figure, with the snap of her fingers, opened the casket and pulled up a handful of the deceased man's ashes. Having collected what she sought, the figure placed the ashes in an urn and proceeded to place the dirt back over the unearthed grave. After finishing her work, she knelt over and grabbed the jar, chortling devilishly whilst observing Ieyasu's ashes keenly.

"There. Just one more essential ingredient and I'll have acquired all I require..." Turning around, two glowing eyes burned inside the cloak, leaving a vague impression. "...to give rise to my ultimate undead warrior."

To be continued

Here is the new chapter. I hope you liked Knuckle's especial appearing in this chapter.  
And who was the figure who stole Giotto's remains? You have to wait and see what happens next.

Please, do not forget to review my story. You are the ones to give me incentive to write more and more chapters. ^^

I wanna thanks to KuraiArcoiris for helping me in this fic

Cyclopedia

Headless mule: Is a cursed woman who becomes a headless mule. There's several versions of the legend, the most popular one is the woman becomes a headless mule because she had a relationship with a priest or losing the virginity before the weeding and the priest punishes her for this sin. To break the curse, the own priest must remove the curse or a brave man wounding the mule with a virgin blade (only hurting enough to make a small bleed).


	5. Chapter 5

Shaman  
chapter 5- Bakeneko, kitsune and demon market- Part 1

Gokudera's pov

This is Gokudera Hayato, Tsuna-sama's loyal friend. Man, the past 2 weeks were rough; first we met the spirit of Knuckle, Vongola's first sun guardian. That surprised me greatly but it was an honor to see one of the Vongola guardians. We had to deal with a vengeful spirit known as headless mule, which was Knuckle's lover who Knuckle accidentally cursed. We would have held our own against the mule if it wasn't for the extreme high neigh. It made Tsuna-sama, the baseball freak, and me become temporarily deaf. We couldn't go to school because of the hearing problem the stupid thing cause, but the loss of hearing did not stop Hinoto-sama from training us in her own Spartan way. I hope we will not meet a troublesome youkai like the mule any time soon.

*end of pov*

Tsuyoshi blinked confused when he saw his son and his two friends eating his food. He knew his sushi was good, but he never expected to see the boys devouring his food so fast. They acted as if they hadn't eaten for days. Thanks to the extra Tenchi Rosaries, Tsuyoshi could see the boys' daemons were also eating as fast as their masters.

"I think it's the first time I see Aoyama-chan and the other daemons eating, Takeshi," Tsuyoshi commented to his son.

"Oh weally?" Takeshi asked, with his mouth full.

Tsuyoshi smacked his son's head.

"Don't speak with your month full, Takeshi."

"Sorry, Yamamoto-san," Tsuna said, after swallowing his food. "You see, obaa-chan was really rough for the past 2 weeks. She wanted to train us to deal with youkai who use sound attacks since we were pretty much humiliated by the headless mule. And it took too not only our physical energy, but a lot of our spiritual as well. That's why our daemons are eating, to help us to recover our energy faster."

"Oh, I see, so that's the reason why are you eating like hungry spirits," said Tsuyoshi. He noticed Tsuna and Gokudera's bags on the ground. "Planning to spend the night here?"

Gokudera swallowed his food, and he answered they will stay there for a couple of days because Hinoto-sama was going to get an important guest soon that she didn't want him seeing them. Tsuyoshi frowned. Who could be that mysterious guest?

XXX

At the shrine, Hinto was starting a fire in the fireplace, while Byakko was lying down beside her, as she felt a presence enter the holy room. She smirked; looks like her guest had arrived.

"Come out. I know you're there."

Reborn suddenly appeared behind her. He was surprised because only a few people could feel his presence when he wants to be hidden.

"You may hide your physical presence but not your spiritual one, Arcobaleno. I know you have been spying us for a while," the old miko said as she turned around and she looked at Reborn. "You want something from me, don't you?"

Reborn was quiet. He didn't expect the old miko knew he was there for a long time. He would have come to her sooner but because of the mule, his hearing had suffered, and now he had to ask the Shaman 'nicely' to see if he could heal his hearing faster. Sadly he had to wait for his hearing healing naturally. Reborn sighed before he introduced himself to the old miko and started to explain the reason why he was there.

"So, you've noticed my flame is the same as your little student, is that correct?"

Reborn nodded to her. He explained because he had no idea what Kouga's flame was and was having difficulties in training him. Hinoto was not surprised he had no knowledge about the earth flames since the arcobaleno pacifiers belonged to the sky element.

"I may give you some notes about earth flame, if that helps you, arconbaleno," Hinoto said to Reborn. "But I feel you have more troublesome thoughts in your mind."

Reborn was once again surprised. In a way, the old miko reminds him Luce; she was the only person who could know whenever he had something bothering him. He thought she could help with Kouga's odd aggression. Before he could say anything, he head a ringtone of a cellphone. Hinoto took the cellphone out of her robe and she turned on.

"This is Hakurei," Hinoto said. She listened to the person on the other side of the line. Her eyes widen in shock. "What? It was stolen? Even the soil?"

Reborn raised his eyebrow. Something must had happened since Hinoto showed some concern in her face. She turned off her cellphone and she looked at Reborn.

"I am sorry Reborn, but could you accompany me to Namimori Graveyard?" She asked. Reborn looked confused at her request.

"Why?"

Hinoto was quiet before answering the hitman.

"The remains of Sawada Ieyasu were stolen from his tomb. You know who Sawada Ieyasu was, don't you?"

Reborn's eyes widen in shock. He knew who Sawada Ieyasu was, its Vongola Primo's Japanese name, when he came to Namimori after he retired from being Vongola Boss.

XXX

In the next morning, Tsuna, Gokudera , Takeshi, and their daemon were on their way to the school. They were running like their lives were depending on getting there on time.

"You, idiot baseball freak! I thought you had set up your alarm on last night!" shouted Gokudera, while running.

Takeshi laughed.

"Sorry, sorry, I did set up my alarm clock to wake us up in the right time, but I didn't expect a small blackout during the night." Takeshi said, embarrassed as he apologized to Gokudera and Tsuna.

"Next time use your cellphone as your alarm clock and not some old electric alarm clock!"

"Forget about the alarm clock! Focus on getting to school before the bells ring, and Hibari-san bites us to death!" Tsuna shouted, trying to stop Gokudera from fighting with Takeshi.

Their daemons were also running. Well, only Tenma and Aoyama were running, Ryuuki was on Aoyama's head. Tenma looked annoyed for the little dragon taking a ride on the other daemon. Ryuki only said she was taking a ride on Aoyama because she has short legs and she couldn't run fast and she was still a small dragon and she couldn't fly fast either. Tenma only looked at Ryuki with an annoyed look while Aoyama laughed, saying she does not mind giving a ride to the small dragon.

When they reached in the school gates, the bells were already ringing. The boys immediately spotted a certain prefect leaning against the pillar of the gate.

"G-Good morning, Hibari-san." Tsuna greeted, nervously.

Hibari only glared at them as he grabbed the collars of each of the teens' shirts. He dragged them to the D.C room. The other students looked pity for the students being dragged by the prefect as they prayed for their souls. When they arrived the committee room, Hibari closed the door and glared at them.

"C-Come on Hibari-san, we arrived in the nick of time," Tsuna said, very nervous. "We're not really late."

"Humph, you want bite someone, bite this baseball freak," Gokudera said, pointing to Takeshi "It's his fault we were almost late anyway."

"Come on, Hayato, don't be so mean," said Takeshi as he smiled at Gokudera in a happy way.

"When did I give you permission to use my name?" Gokudera growled at the baseball player.

Hibari only glared at them, already on the edge of his patience. He didn't like being ignored, and he had important matters to deal with.

"Meow!"

Tsuna, Gokudera and Takeshi frozen. Did they heard right? Did they just heard Hibari Kyoya meowing? Suddenly cat ears popped out of the top of the prefect's head, which made Tsuna, Gokudera, and Takeshi freaking out as two fluffy tails waved behind him. Even their daemons stiffened; what was that?

Puff

Suddenly a cloud of indigo smoke erupted around them.

"What happened?" Gokudera coughed. "Tsuna-sama, are you alright?"

Tsuna nodded, waving a hand to clear the smoke.

"What was that?" Takeshi spoke up, squinting into the indigo haze.

"Let me do it," Ryuki said, taking a deep breath as she blew the smoke away.

As the smoke cleared, a small black cat stood before them, in the place where Hibari had stood. Its fur was as black as the night, two fluffy tails and big silver eyes.

"Meow…" the two tailed cat meowed, making the boys totally confused.

XXX

At Namimori graveyard, Hinoto saw the hole where the tomb of Sawada Ieyasu. She could only glare at the empty tomb. Even Reborn was not happy with this.

"Who could do such disgraceful thing?" Reborn asked, feeling nothing but rage.

While the police were chatting to the people who worked on the graveyard, Hinoto was walking off to another direction. That made Reborn curious.

"Where are you going?" Reborn asked.

"We will ask to the graveyard keepers what happened here," Hinoto said coldly.

When they reached to the empty part of the graveyard, Hinoto asked to Reborn to active his pacifier to see the graveyard one of the keepers. When he activated the sun pacifier, Reborn never expected to see what he was seeing; a muscled man with a horse head, he looked like pretty wounded.

"Mezu. What happened?" Hinoto asked to the horse-faced man.

Hinoto kneed beside him, checking his condition. He was extremely wounded and she could feel presence of poison. The creature hissed in pain before looking at Hinoto.

"Hinoto-sama…She is back… She will do the same thing…the same thing 50 years ago."

The horse-face man went limp as his body become ashes, being blow by the wind. Byakko looked at Hinoto with a very serious face.

"Hinoto… could be…"

"Yeah." The old woman features were now very serious. Reborn felt a killing aura around the woman. "She is back. And she still didn't gave up on her greedy plan."

Reborn was now confused. What she was talking about. And what that horse-face man means the same happened 50 years ago?

"What do you by that?"

"That witch wants the power of Tri-Ni-Sette," She said in a very serious voice.

XXX

The boys and the daemons were staring at the cat, and the cat stared back. The room was filled with silence before Ryuki broke the silent.

"Waah! So cute!" she said as she petted the cat with her tail. "Look, Haya-chan! Isn't it cute?"

"Ok… what's with the stupid cat posing as the bastard?" Gokudera asked, narrowing his eyes at the two tailed cat. "And where's the real bastard?"

Then, they heard footsteps. The cat quickly became Hibari again as the door of D.C room opened. They saw Kusakabe, Hibari's right hand. His eyes widen in surprise when he saw Hibari in the room.

"What the…. What are you doing here?"

Tsuna gulped

"Eer... Hibari is here to give us our punishment?" He said, very nervous.

But Kusakabe narrowed his eyes at Hibari. Something that only a brave or perhaps a stupid soul would do in the prefect presence.

"That's impossible. Hibari-san is at hospital. He got hut after dealing with a gang," Kusakabe said.

POW

Quickly the cat disguised as Hibari punched Kusakabe in his stomach. He quickly lost his consciousness. The cat undid his transformation, and he handed to Tsuna a picture of a red haired boy and a picture of rescue team. Tsuna blinked confused.

"What are you trying to say?" Tsuna asked to the cat as he only got a meowing in response. "It would be much easier if you were a nekomata."

Gokudera looked confused.

"Hun? But I thought this cat was a nekomata."

"This cat is actually a bakeneko. You see guys, bakenekos and nekomatas are a shape-shifting cat spirits with powerful supernatural powers, and they both have the look of a two tailed cat. But the difference between them are that nekomatas are necromancers and can speak human speech while bakenekos are illusionists and can't speak in human speech," Tenma explained to them.

Yamamoto and Gokudera nodded as they understood the difference between nekomata and bakeneko. Since the black bakeneko can't talk in human speech, they needed to guess what the cat wants to say to them. The boys and the daemons looked at the pictures once more.

"Could it be… You want us to rescue this red haired boy?" Tenma asked to the cat.

The cat nodded to them, as the feline showed a picture of an oni and a market. The boys once more focused on the pictures, trying to guess their meaning . Tsuna blinked before looking at the cat.

"Are you trying to tell us that boy somehow ended up in the Oni Market?" Tsuna asked as the cat nodded once more. "Crap!"

Takeshi and Gokudera thought it was odd for Tsuna cursing. Tsuna tells them about the Oni Market; it's a place open only for demons and selling only strange goods such as bones and the like. He mentioned his grandmother went there once in her youth, when she needed to rescue a friend from that place. But the only thing he knows about Oni Market is that his grandmother will not ever set her feet there again.

"Well, since Hinoto-sama is with that guest, I guess we will do the rescue by ourselves," commented Takeshi as he took the cat in his arms.

"Going to the Oni Market will be not easy." Tsuna said. "But I know someone who can help us."

XXX

The boys had to skip the school in order to help the bakeneko. They were now in the front of an antique shop. Gokudera and Takeshi were confused, why they would be in an antique shop? When they entered in the shop they saw a lot of antique stuff as they heard a voice.

"Welcome to my humble … oh Tsu-kun,? I see you came with friends this time."

Then, they say a man around of his late 20s, wearing typical Japanese cloths, short silver hair, dark eyes and using glasses in his face. Tsuna bowed to him.

"It's been a while, Kawahira-san." Tsuna said to him, "These are my friends Gokudera-kun and Takeshi-kun with their daemons."

After introducing each other, Tsuna explained the situation to the shop owner. The shop- owner understood their situation and promised to help them, but they needed to wait for night to fall, when his power when his power was strongest. Kawahira also explained that to be at the Oni Market they needed to be disguised to not have any problem with other youkai at the market.

"And I know which disguise suits well on you all," he smiled.

That smile was giving chills in the boys' spine. Something was telling them they will not like their disguises.

XXX

At the night, they went again to Namimori's park. Gokudera was growing, very angrily.

"I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!"

Gokudera was now wearing cat ears, tail and paws. Kawahira said he was supposed to be a werecat and, thanks to the bakeneko , Gokudera's human smell can be hidden. But he still hated his disguise.

"Come on, Hayato. It's not that bad." Takeshi said, grinning.

Gokudera only growled.

"I've already told you, don't call me that. And why the heck your face is green?"

Takeshi looked at his costume and grinned. He was wearing torn and tattered hakama and had drawn stitches on his arm. He also had an axe sticking out of his head.

"I am a zombie Samurai. Don't I look cool?" asked Takeshi proudly.

"At least you're happy…" Gokudera muttered. "Unlike our daemons."

Kawahira was using a spray paint on their daemon. The shiisa, the little dragon, and the kirin were sobbing while the shop owner were painting their bodies in black color. Even Ryuki was looking extremely sad, complaining that her beautiful red scales were ruined.

"Where's Tsuna?" Takeshi asked, looking around.

"I am here…"

Gokudera and Takeshi turned around and they saw Tsuna wearing a black female sailor uniform, with a black wig on his head, and a surgical mask on his face. They could not help but find Tsuna looking cute in a female uniform.

"Eer… Tsuna-sama, what kind of youkai you suppose to be?" Gokudera asked, curious.

"I suppose to be a Kuchisake-onna." Tsuna said, as he looked gloomily at the female clothes.

As he finished the last details on their daemons, Kawihara got closer to the lake. As the full moon came out from the clouds, Kawahira's body began to glow. His hair began to grow longer, until it reached on his waist. Fox ears appeared on the top on his head, 9 elegant tails also appeared behind him, wagging in a very elegant way as his eyes became a golden color. Gokudera and Takeshi were surprised to see the shop owner was a kyuubi no kitsune. Using his tails, Kawahira drew a star on the lake's surface, the star glowed as it transformed into a portal.

"Here we go boys. A portal to the Oni Market," Kawahira said as he turned to the boys. " Remember, you have 3 hours before the portal closes."

Tsuna nodded to Kawahira as he thanked him for the help. Tsuna, Gokudera, Takeshi, and their daemons, along with the bakeneko, jumped to the portal to save bakeneko's friend.

XXX

In the center of Oni Market, a red haired boy, groaned as he woke up in a very strange place. The first thing he remembers was he was feeding the stray cats before something had caught him.

"Awake, child of Earth?"

The boy only looked a pair of demoniac glowing green eyes through the darkness.

To be continued

Here is the new chapter. I hope you like it.

And who was the red haired boy that bakeneko wants to save? And what Hinoto meant with the same thing happened 50 years ago? You have to wait and see what happens next.

Please, do not forget to review my story. You are the ones to give me incentive to write more and more chapters. More reviews, more dynamic I become and faster I work on the chapters^^

I wanna thanks to KuraiArcoiris for helping me in this fic

Cyclopedia

Bakeneko: A cat yōkai (spiritual beings) with supernatural abilities akin to those of the kitsune (fox) or tanuki (raccoon dog). Bakeneko also have the ability to eat anything in their way, regardless of size or edibility. This includes humans. Their main food is poison, particularly a certain snake unknown to humankind. Not all bakeneko are bad; in some stories they are faithful and good-hearted to their owners, protecting them from other demons.

Mezu: horse face youkai. Along with Ox-head (Gozu), they are two fearsome guardians or types guardian of the Underworld in Chinese/Japanese mythology, where the dead face suffering prior to reincarnation. They are the first people a dead soul meets upon arriving in the Underworld; in many stories they directly escort the newly dead to the Underworld.

Kuchisake-onna: It's a beautiful woman who was either the wife or concubine of a samurai was unfaithful to him. When he discovered her infidelity, he slit her mouth from ear to ear with a sword, a katana and asked "who will think you are beautiful now?"

In the modern urban legend version, when Children walk alone at night may encounter a woman wearing a surgical mask, this is not an unusual sight in Japan as people wear them to protect others from their colds or sickness. The woman will stop the child and ask, 'Am I beautiful?' If the child answers no, they are killed with a pair of scissors which the woman carries. If they answer yes, the woman pulls away the mask, revealing that her mouth is slit from ear to ear and asks 'Am I beautiful now?' If the child answers no, he/she will be cut in half. If he/she answers yes, then she will slit his/her mouth like hers. It is impossible to run away from her, as she will simply reappear in front of the victim.


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